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 0:49

In 1990, 13-year-old Deanna Merrifield disappeared from Colleen, Texas. What should have sparked an urgent search for a missing teenager instead became a case that for many years was viewed through the lens of a runaway investigation. As a result, critical time passed, leads grew cold, and Deanna's family was left fighting to keep attention on her case while searching for answers of their own. Today we're joined by Deanna's sister, Amy Hall. For more than three decades, Amy and her family have lived with the uncertainty that comes from not knowing what happened to someone they love. Along the way, they've also faced the frustration of watching Deanna's disappearance be treated differently than they believe it should have been. Only in more recent years has there been renewed attention to the possibility that Deanna's case may involve much more than a teenage runaway. In this conversation, Amy will share her memories of Deanna as a sister, the life they shared before 1990, and what it has been like to grow up with a missing sibling. We'll talk about the early days of the investigation, the impact of the runaway label, the family's efforts to keep Deanna's name in the public eye, and the hope that renewed interest in case could finally lead to answers. More than 35 years have passed since Deanna disappeared, but for her family, the search has never ended. Behind every missing person is a loved one whose story deserves to be told and family still waiting for the truth. Amy, thank you for being here, for trusting us with your sister's story, and welcome to the show. Thank you, Alyssa. I'm glad to be here. So before we talk about Deanna's disappearance, can you help listeners understand your family dynamic and your relationship with Deanna?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

There were four of us sisters. I'm the oldest, and there was Deanna and her twin sister, and then Melissa. Um, we weren't living in the same house when she went missing. We actually, about six or eight months, maybe a year prior to that, we were all removed from the home for some things that had been happening, and we lived in different homes and we each of us went to different places. We weren't grouped together for at some point Deanna and her twin sister were together, but we weren't living together anymore.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

And how did that impact your relationship um as sisters?

SPEAKER_02 3:24

But I don't I think we didn't have as many times together as we had in the past, but we still spent a lot of time together when we could. Um we would walk wherever, you know, we'd walk miles to see each other. It didn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

That's something that has been reflected uh when we spoke with Missy and several other people as well, is just the lengths that uh your family and the sisters would go to to be able to spend time together. And so tell us what did that time look like when you were able to be together?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

It felt comfortable. Um, from what I can remember, it felt, you know, it feels like home when you don't have a home. We were all really close. So being separated like that was hard. But when we were brought back together or we're hanging out, you know, at the time we're teenagers, we didn't think about it, but it did feel like a place where you're safe and you're comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

And when you think about Deanna as a teenager, what do you remember most?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

As a teenager, you know, everybody changes, but she she was sweet and she still was sweet as a teenager, but she was much more shy when she was younger. Um but as a teenager she was tougher being moved house to house and you know, the things we were going through did make her a little bit tougher, but she was still to me anyways, and you know, our our sisters. She was still sweet and fun to hang around.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

And what are your some of your favorite memories?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

You know, um a lot of the memories I have are it's not just the two of us together, it's all four of us together or all four of us sisters with other families. Um, mostly outside too. We at home, you know, when my parents would go and to uh the grocery store once a month, they'd go um to the commissary and spend a few hours. And we always loved that and looked forward to that because we'd have water fights. I remember one of us would get up in a tree and we'd just run circles in and out of the house and just throw buckets of water on each other. Um, that was one of my favorites. And we hung out a lot at this creek nearby. It wasn't paved, uh, so there were crot ads. So we would take a string and we would tie a little piece of hot dog and drop it down and catch buckets of crawdads, which was so gross.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Gross. That sounds perfect. That's that sounds like what I was doing.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah, it's it's kind of gross after a few hours of them sitting in that bucket with something.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Um that's probably fair.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

We did do a lot. I remember there were a couple of other families in the neighborhood that had kids that were similar in ages, you know, stacked like some that were my age, some that were the twins' age, some that were Melissa's age. And I remember doing a lot of like spear grass fights. I don't know if y'all know what that is. The little bits of grass when you pull out the top and it's like a little spear.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

The little part that you can pull out and it's like a light green color.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, and it's got like a pokey end, and you can throw them at each other. We would do that, and I remember we would catch fireflies. I remember that's a vivid one. And I don't know why this was so fun. I'd and it's silly because we would spin around and around and around and just like silly things like that be out in the yard and we'd spin around and get dizzy and you know, fall and laugh at each other. There was one game we played where one of us would lay on our back and put our feet up and somebody would sit on our feet and we would propel them. Um, I mean, these are like pre-internet and gamer times, so we came up with a lot of fun stuff. Those are some of the the more fun things.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I am an only child and I obviously did not have the opportunity to experience siblings at all, let alone being able to do fun things like hang hot dogs to get crawdads from the creek. Also, uh I I don't think that's even an option where where I grew up. But definitely for Michael, I I'm pretty pretty confident at some point in your life you use hot dogs to catch crawdads.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

I think that's many things.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yes. Okay, so he's familiar. Oh, he's very familiar. Yes, exactly. Uh so let's shift a little bit to um when Deanna disappeared. And would you start by walking us through how you learned that she was missing?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

So I was in Virginia that summer visiting um my aunt and her family up there just for the summer. And I lived at my grandmother's and I went up there just for the summer. And Deanna, the last time I talked to her, she said she was gonna be, you know, staying at grandma's, and I was so excited. We were gonna hang out and watch movies and stuff when I got back. And I think I got a phone call. I don't remember exactly how I found out. I do remember when I got back from Virginia going through every phone number I had and calling everybody I knew and asking over and over, you know, do you know my sister? Did you see her? Is this the car that was in the description? Does this belong to you? Many calls. I don't remember the exact call I received, but I remember getting back to Texas and making a lot of calls to people.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

What were you told? Were you told that she had disappeared? Were you told that she had run away? It sounds like maybe you were also given some information about perhaps um where she had last been seen. I wasn't told she ran away.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

I was told that she went with a couple of guys, went to see Becky late one night, and then we hadn't heard from her. Nobody had heard from her. So I knew she didn't run away. So I don't believe I was told that because my grandmother also knew she didn't run away, and that probably would have been who called me.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, our understanding is that was never the belief of anyone in the family. However, that was how her disappearance was initially considered through when law enforcement was involved. And so at what point did the family feel like law enforcement was viewing this case not as a missing person's case?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

I don't think we had the impression that it was taken seriously or as a missing person's case from the beginning. I, if I can recall correctly, um, my grandmother, I was close to my grandmother, you know, her whole life, well, our whole life. I remember her being f very frustrated from the beginning that a lot wasn't being done, that nothing was being done. I'm sorry if that I don't know if that answered your question accurately.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, no, that yeah, that's perfectly fine. I think what we're getting at is what were some missed opportunities that you think may have uh been there present because the law enforcement did not seem to be considering her case as a missing person's rather as a runaway.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Missed opportunities from the beginning were a search. I if you think somebody's missing, you're going to be more apt to look for them than if you think they ran away and they just don't want to be home. Like they don't want to there's a teenager out having fun, then that is uh the biggest first missed opportunity. So no searches were done.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

We uh had an opportunity to uh meet and talk further with Missy, and it does seem to us that you you are right, there have been some searches, but they were just recent searches. Nothing was going on um when she disappeared as far as searching for her.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Right. For over 30 years, no searches were done.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

When you say no searches, are we talking about just sponsored by law enforcement or family or both?

SPEAKER_02 11:28

No searches at all. Not the community. Um there wasn't a lot of I don't believe there was any media. You know, back then it was newspaper and news, and I don't think there was any media coverage that I can remember.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Aaron Powell How did your family advocate for the case when it seemed others believed Deanna had left voluntarily?

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Um, from the beginning, my grandmother made several phone calls often to the police department. I don't think many people took her seriously. Then after many years of trying and the case being kind of dropped, and then you know, she'd call and it would be restarted. She did give up. And then Missy did step in, I believe it was around 2007, and she that's when she very first uh started to learn about some of the things you can search for online and some of the different websites that were coming online that you could, you know, search for missing people and things like that. Um, and I think that's also when she got to Genna put into the and the was it national NC, oh I don't remember the initials, N C M E C that's right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

N C M E C. Yeah. That's when she had that done. She did a lot of things then, and I believe that um our other sister, Deanna's twin, also helped out then too. That's when she did the hypnosis, I believe. The gave her DNA for the databases too. And then things were dropped. I don't know exactly what happened, life happened. You know, Missy also had kids, and not not a lot of movement was had until a year or two ago. I want to say was it 2024? Is when Missy started pushing again. And 2025 is when she and Luke really started, you know, taking action and learning all the the different resources and um getting the searches done and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

And also um it's our understanding that there's been some really good collaboration with uh private investigator who's supporting and the current detective as well.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Yeah, but I think I don't remember exactly. Um Missy has a lot more of the details, but from what I remember, I think that Cash, Detective Cash at the KPD is the one who has been really helping out. I believe he picked it up as just a special interest. He's not in the cold case department. There is no cold case department at KPD, which is another problem. But he picked it up and started doing these searches and really looking into the case more um on his own time. So he has been incredible, but he only has so much time because he's also an actual, you know, detective there. He had the job.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yes, I hear what you're saying about the lack of a cold case department. In fact, Missy was just speaking with us about that um the other day when we met her for the first time and the resources that are there and the frustration around not having a dedicated uh cold case department because it seems that there are several unresolved cases in in your area.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yes, there are many. She's doing what she can to bring awareness to that without stepping on toes. So hopefully there's some progress made. But I believe the only responses she's gotten is we're working on it.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Several of our families have um shared what what you're discussing is this desire to push and get more from law enforcement, but the balance to make sure that the relationship is maintained and not harmed in in that pushing. So so we hear what you're saying, and one of the things that we really love about Missy is not only her ability to learn uh what resources are out there, but her desire to share those resources. And we have I have already shared some of the resources that um she shared with us with our families in hopes that they can access some of the things that that Missy has been able to access to support them. So we're just so grateful uh for her for sharing what she knows uh and being a resource for us.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, I'm that's great news that you've been able to share some of those already. She has been incredible. She's my baby sister. We weren't super close growing up. I think we're like eight years and apart. She is she's very courageous.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

This is another thing that we see a lot. We there's always at least, sometimes more than one, but at least one fierce person in every story we've told. I could name them off for you. Who's the fierce person for Ian Rogers? Who's the fierce person for Jody Kilgore? Everybody has every story that and family that we support has one, and and she's she's your fierce person.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

She really is. Yes. And I love knowing that she's her fierceness is also helping other families. She would love knowing that also.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, I think that's so important. Do you believe there are still people out there who know more than they've shared? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

There are a couple of people that the detectives and I believe even the private investigator have not been able to talk to that would have information, people that were friends with her back then. I mean, we were 13, a lot of years have passed, and I would imagine that in the space where the police were actively investigating, those people may have been adults and been afraid to talk about what they knew. I think that might be a piece of why some people haven't spoken, you know, haven't been willing to talk to law enforcement. Yeah, I do believe there are people that know more. Um even if it's just little things, I think there might be be also like a fear of a fear of getting in trouble for it. Being implicated? Yes. I believe there's also a fear in some people that knew her back then, as you know, as teenagers, as children, that now as adults are afraid of being implicated. But we just we just want to know and like we just want answers. We just want to know what happened to her. We want to know we we just want closure.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

And this topic is something that comes up a lot as well as a little sometimes people will not come forward. Sometimes they think they have information that isn't going to matter, so they don't come forward, or sometimes they feel like they're going to get caught up in it or implicated, or sometimes they have something going on with law enforcement, so they don't want to call the sheriff's office or walk into the sheriff's office. There are a lot of reasons, I think, why someone may choose to not share what they know. And we will, we will say it every episode: share what you know. Um, you can give an anonymous tip, you can reach out to us on our email and we will share what you bel you know with local law enforcement. There are lots of different ways that information can be shared and remain anonymous. So we always encourage people, give the information and let law enforcement decide its relevancy to someone's disappearance.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Yeah, I think that's that's great. Um, I would also like to add that even with that option being out there for some of them, there might be a hesitancy. And at this age, you know, at this point right now, they're adults too. They probably have children and grandchildren. If you were there when she went missing and you have children or grandchildren, if there's a detail that you think might be important, or if there's something you do know that happened, like what if it was your daughter, granddaughter, you know, sister? You would want to know the answer.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

And after all these years, what keeps you fighting for answers?

SPEAKER_02 19:46

You know, I'm sitting here looking at I thought this might be a mistake, but I don't think it was. Um this this being not the podcast, but what I what I did. I'm sitting here looking at I spread out Deanna's pictures in front of me for this interview. And I think what keeps me fighting for answers is she was she was so sweet and she was so shy and she was just so happy. She was like sunshine and it makes me sad that she didn't have a chance to become an adult, to, you know, have a family to form those relationships, you know, with us. Oh, it keeps me fighting for answers, just remembering who she was. I don't know, that was a tough one, you guys.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Is there any information out there that you're aware of that you would like to have an opportunity to clear up?

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Um yes, there was some information that was put out there early in the investigation that was inaccurate and her family knew that. Um it was uh rumors and it has since been disproven. Missy was able to um get that just you know, that get the proof that that was a lie about her having tattoos, um, about her being seen, but not wanting to be found. That's absolutely untrue. Deanna would want to see her sisters. We were that close. We were very close. We weren't close in space like where we lived physically, but we were very close. And I believe some of that misinformation still exists out there and it's not something that we can get removed, but it leads to it implies that she was a runaway, and that's untrue.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Can you go into a little more detail about the misinformation and what you mean by getting it removed?

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Um, I believe the information was entered into some of the national databases. It was information that she had a tattoo on her neck and maybe some other tattoos, tattoo of her last our last name, which if you don't want to be found, why would you have a tattoo of your last name? But I believe Missy was able to get it removed from some of the databases, but not all of them. Would that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Are there other things in your notes that you wanted to make sure that you addressed?

SPEAKER_02 22:11

I think I did talk a lot about how she was very shy. She was when she was younger. Um, I remember hiding behind a refrigerator when somebody came over once, just this little flash of her hiding. Um, she would tippy toe a lot. Her name, we I believe my grandmother nicknamed her Prissy because she was so sweet and shy. That's how I mostly remember her. But I do know as we got older and the troubles we were having and how we were all separated, she did become tough, but she did that as a way to protect her sisters. I don't think she got in a lot of trouble at school unless it was because she was protecting her sisters. So I will say that whatever the things that happened at home did toughen her. So if she was taken or something happened to her that involved other people, she definitely would have put up the fight.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

I think we can agree that it's well established now that trauma, particularly childhood trauma, can have a massive impact on behavior. As a teacher, uh a retired teacher, I know that. And we are trained to watch for changes in behavior of the students that we are serving. And when we see significant changes in behavior um or physical changes, then we we are trained now in how to begin to support that student. Something that I don't, I mean, clearly we weren't addressing back in the 90s.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

No, definitely not. I don't know if Missy mentioned it about her report card. Did she mention that to you guys?

SPEAKER_01 23:44

I do remember it. It stuck out to me specifically, um, obviously as an educator, and the dramatic grades is um d one of those things that can dramatically change the way um a child dresses, the people that they choose to hang out with, their eating habits, um, engagement, attendance, all of those things can be indicators of something that we need to pay attention to.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

I'm glad that they um teach all that they give that information to teachers now and help train them. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

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 Tragedy a 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.