MURDERED: Joyce LePage Part 2

0:00 Crime Junkeys, in case you missed it, the Summer Merch collection is officially 0:04 live, but 0:04 do not wait to shop. 0:06 These items are not going to last long, I can promise you. 0:08 So if you have been eyeing, maybe that beach towel, the lawyer toad, or a new go-to-tee, 0:13 now is the time to grab it. 0:16 Head to the link in the show notes and start shopping before the collection is gone 0:20 for 0:20 good. 0:21 Alright, I'm not going to take up any more time. 0:23 Let's just jump right in to today's episode. 0:28 Hi, Crime Junkeys. 0:29 I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. 0:31 And I'm Brett. 0:32 Last episode, I told you the story of Joyce LaPage, a WSU student who went missing 0:37 from 0:37 Stevens Hall on campus in 1971, the same night in 1971 that a swath of green carpet 0:46 from the building went missing too. 0:48 And 55 years after that, we still don't know what happened to Joyce on July 22, 0:54 1971. 0:56 Over the years, police have developed a number of suspects and theories, and I'm 1:00 walking 1:01 you through six of them. 1:03 Last episode, I told you about Mike Finch, who investigators cleared with a past 1:07 polygraph 1:08 in 2013, despite a shaky alibi and changing timeline. 1:13 They also cleared a tile setter, who was working just yards from Stevens Hall the 1:18 night 1:18 that Joyce vanished because he too passed a polygraph. 1:22 And although Ted Bundy seemed like a contender in the case of a brown haired 1:26 missing Pacific 1:27 Northwest co-ed in the 70s, most investigators agree that it is much more likely 1:33 that Joyce 1:33 was killed by someone a little closer to home, maybe even her new home. 1:40 Because it turns out Joyce was planning to move to a house not far from where her 1:45 abandoned 1:46 car was found. 1:48 And one man inside that house has a scary past that Joyce talked about in her 1:53 letters. 1:54 Let's dive back in, because I've got three more theories to tell you about, 1:59 starting 2:00 with the meditation group theory. 2:30 I told you Joyce was one in a million. 2:37 She was adventurous and curious. 2:40 She had her pilot's license, by the time she was 18, and at 21, she was taking sky-diving 2:45 lessons. 2:46 And the summer that she was killed, one of Joyce's focuses was meditation. 2:51 And I don't mean in a casual sense. 2:54 This was an initiated member of Sims, the Student International Meditation Society. 3:01 The group practiced transcendental meditation. 3:04 They gathered for group meditations weekly, and Joyce had even traveled to Spokane 3:09 for 3:09 a week-long course on meditation a month before she vanished. 3:14 Joyce was socially linked to at least three other people from Sims, this married 3:18 couple 3:19 named Mike and Celeste Lindbergh, and another guy named Mark Wadleyh. 3:24 I'll just refer to them as the meditation group. 3:27 While Mike and Celeste were the leaders of Sims, and Mark was their roommate, and 3:32 they 3:32 all lived at 400 Howard Street. 3:36 This matters because their house was just three or four houses away from where 3:40 Joyce's 3:41 car was found on Opel Street, and Joyce was planning to move in with them in the 3:46 fall. 3:47 The meditation group offered her a room that upcoming semester because Mike and Celeste 3:51 were going to be going to Spain, Mark needed to fill their room to cover rent, and 3:55 they 3:55 all knew that Joyce wasn't happy living with Bruce. 3:57 So are we thinking that Joyce drove to their house on the night of the 22nd? 4:02 And that's just like the closest parking space she could find? 4:05 Anything is a possibility, especially because try as they might, police were 4:08 finding zero 4:09 connection between Joyce and the flat house that her car was parked closest to. 4:14 So if she is the one who drove her car there, and it wasn't just randomly dumped by 4:19 somebody, 4:20 it would stand to reason that she may have been there to visit someone in her 4:24 meditation 4:25 group. 4:26 Wait, did they not notice her car parked there the whole time she was MIA? 4:29 No, they did, or at least one of them did, when police went knocking at the door of 4:35 400 4:36 Howard in the very early days of the missing person investigation. 4:40 That was the single guy, Mark, who answered, and he says that he knows Joyce, and 4:45 he had 4:45 noticed her car parked down the road but that he didn't know where she was, nor did 4:50 he even 4:50 realize that she was missing. 4:53 According to what the officer wrote, he said he'd only just met Joyce the month 4:57 before. 4:58 They never dated or anything he said, and he tells them about the whole new 5:02 roommate situation, 5:03 but very much like keeps his connection to Joyce like at an arm's length. 5:08 But the officer notes that his demeanor is just like off, in the case of the 5:13 officer 5:13 writes that Mark seems nervous. 5:16 And then something weird happens, like mid-conversation. 5:19 The officer notices that the other guy who lives at the house, Mike, he drives by, 5:26 but instead 5:26 of stopping, he like keeps driving, and when the officer left, they like keep surveilling 5:32 the house just to see what happens, and they notice that Mike only goes to the 5:36 house 5:37 after they left, so the detective made it a point to follow up with Mike. 5:44 Yeah, now it's later in August 1971 by the time they get with Mike Lindbergh. 5:49 So Joyce is still just missing at this point, we're a month out. 5:52 And he says he knows Joyce for longer than Mark, about a year, ever since she was 5:56 initiated 5:57 into Sims. 5:58 And all he knew about her outside of the group was that she wasn't getting along 6:02 with 6:02 her roommate Bruce, but he didn't really know why. 6:06 He suspected that it was because Bruce was "a little weird" and probably "involved 6:11 in drugs." 6:12 And he says drug use is forbidden for members of Sims. 6:16 He said the last time he saw Joyce was July 17th when she came over and joined him, 6:21 his 6:21 wife Celeste and Mark for dinner. 6:24 And then after dinner, all four of them drove out to Eden Valley, which is this 6:28 like scenic 6:28 area out near at the river. 6:31 Now here he drops a little tidbit. 6:33 Like tells police that he thinks Mark is attracted to Joyce, but he doesn't think 6:38 that Joyce 6:39 is interested in Mark. 6:40 Did he just all for up that info about Mark? 6:43 Unclear. 6:44 Okay. 6:45 Unclear. 6:46 Because the case file I'm working with, they're all from 1971, many of which are 6:49 like hand-written. 6:50 But if I read between the lines, I get the sense that they like asked him point 6:55 blank 6:55 about Mark's interest in Joyce because there is one line in the files that says 6:59 Mark asked 7:00 Joyce out on a date, which Mark denied. 7:03 Now Mike also tells police that unlike Mark, he had not even noticed that Joyce's 7:09 car 7:09 was parked a hundred feet from his front door for over a week. 7:13 And both Mike and Mark agree to take polygraphs. 7:16 And I find the results very interesting. 7:20 After Mike's test, the officer concludes that while he doesn't think Mike was 7:24 directly 7:25 involved, he did seem quite nervous throughout the test. 7:29 And he notes that he showed concern in answering one question in particular. 7:35 Do you think Mark is involved in Joyce's disappearance? 7:39 Now when they pressed Mike about this after the polygraph, he said, quote, "I don't 7:44 know 7:44 why it would show that, but maybe I am holding back because I feel a certain 7:48 responsibility 7:50 towards Joyce." 7:51 "Responsibility for what?" 7:54 "I don't know." 7:55 But the conclusions from Mark's polygraph were a bit different. 8:00 They said that he seemed calm, but that there was a couple of spots where they 8:05 noted a heart 8:06 rate spike. 8:07 Once, when he was asked if he knew if Joyce was still alive, and then another time 8:13 when 8:13 they asked Mark if he had been inside Joyce's car, but the report notes when they 8:19 asked 8:19 if he had been in her car, they asked if he'd been in their July 23rd. 8:25 And there was not a notable change. 8:28 So the officer summarizes that based on this test, Mark can't be eliminated as a 8:33 suspect. 8:34 "I feel like he's squeaked by there with that were you in her car question, because 8:39 they 8:40 asked him about the 23rd, not the 23rd." 8:43 "I know, but I don't think that was an oversight. 8:47 I think that that was based on what information they had at the time." 8:51 So when officers first went looking for Joyce, like the day that she's officially 8:54 reported 8:54 missing, Bruce, remember, wasn't home for them to talk to, but they actually did 8:59 catch 8:59 a neighbor across the street, this guy named Dave Parks. 9:02 Well, he told officers that he was friends with Joyce, knew her, and he last saw 9:07 her, 9:08 leaving her apartment on July 23rd at 10am with two long hair guys that he didn't 9:16 recognize, 9:17 and they all got into a car. 9:19 Now once this was a homicide investigation, police became a little less confident 9:23 in 9:23 that sighting. 9:24 He's still worth noting, and it is clearly what they were driving home like here in 9:28 this 9:29 polygraph with, Mark. 9:30 "And did Mike and Mark have long hair?" 9:33 Dude, somehow? 9:35 Nobody notes that in the case file, and I haven't run across any pictures of these 9:39 guys 9:40 from that era. 9:41 But like for the record, like, I don't think that sighting could be right. 9:45 Right, like police seemed to think that the neighbor must have been mistaken or 9:48 gotten 9:48 the date wrong because, again, go back to like the timeline of this, this carpet is 9:52 discovered 9:52 missing before 8.30am on the 23rd. 9:56 So like, it had to have gone missing overnight on the 22nd, if Joyce is wrapped 10:00 inside the 10:00 carpet, like she's already dead by then. 10:03 "And did they ever talk to Mike's wife Celeste?" 10:06 They did, but she didn't have a whole lot to add. 10:08 She just mentioned that the last time she saw Joyce was that night that they all, 10:12 like, 10:12 did dinner. 10:13 They drove to that Eden Valley. 10:14 So it's kind of confirming all that? 10:15 Yeah, and it's worth noting that throughout the case file, this night does get 10:19 mentioned 10:20 as like July 16th or 17th, depending on who you ask. 10:23 I'm not sure that that matters, but she didn't really offer up anything new. 10:27 But I actually found something new that's actually old, hidden in the case file. 10:34 And it's something written in Joyce's own words about Mark. 10:44 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and 10:48 coastal communities 10:49 deserve recognition too. 10:51 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives Joyce the 10:56 victims 10:57 through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling. 11:00 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig 11:04 through 11:05 the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to 11:09 light. 11:09 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts. 11:16 I almost miss this piece because it is written in Joyce's handwriting, which to be 11:21 honest 11:22 is like kind of hard to read. 11:24 Girl after my own heart? 11:25 I know. 11:26 And it seems to be this letter that she was writing to her boyfriend, David Arthur, 11:30 the 11:30 one that they found in her purse at Stevens Hall when they first discovered the 11:34 carpet 11:34 was missing. 11:35 So I'm going to have a voice actor read a portion of the letter. 11:38 I had dinner with Celeste, Michael, and Mark the other night. 11:43 In other words, we drove around until dark, then we stopped in at a rummage sale in 11:47 Palou's 11:48 city and got ice cream cones. 11:51 We had a very good time. 11:52 I discovered that Mark once stayed at a mental institution for trying to strangle 11:57 people. 11:58 He also, I suspect, was the informer to a narc for this big drug bus two years ago. 12:04 OK, just a casual mention of strangulation in a letter to your boyfriend. 12:10 There is no other mention of these allegations about Mark anywhere in the case file. 12:15 No mention of this when they talk to Mark or anyone in the meditation group. 12:19 And I don't see them trying to really nail down his history, like ever, from what 12:24 we can 12:25 tell, no past or present investigator has even looked into this. 12:30 And yes, the history is the most interesting allegation. 12:34 The one about him being a si or a narc is just as big to me because if Mark was 12:42 involved 12:43 in some way as the polygraph would suggest, maybe someone was more inclined to look 12:49 the 12:49 other way and keep Mark out of trouble. 12:53 There are a couple of areas in the file where this idea comes up that maybe Joyce 12:57 knew 12:58 something before she died, something that made her a liability. 13:03 So this woman named Kay Garrison is interviewed by police in September of 71. 13:09 Again, Joyce is still just a missing person by this point. 13:13 Now Kay used to live with Joyce, but it sounds like Joyce moved dorms and then they 13:17 kind 13:18 of just drifted apart a little bit, but they would run into each other a couple of 13:21 times 13:21 over the summer of 1971 while they were doing summer classes. 13:26 And one of the last times she saw Joyce was maybe like a weaker less before she 13:32 disappeared. 13:33 And she said Joyce looked like something was wrong, like she lost a bunch of weight. 13:37 She looked pale, thin, and she was asking Kay to like come up and see her sometimes 13:42 so 13:42 they could talk. 13:43 She had something to tell her. 13:46 She just couldn't tell her then. 13:49 Crime Nukulei for all of you, how a secret for the love of God. 13:51 Tell someone. 13:53 Here is exactly what Kay says in her transcript and she's explaining to the detectives 13:58 what 13:58 it is that Joyce was saying. 14:00 Oh, I've been pretty busy with the other projects and I asked her, well, where's 14:05 Dave? 14:06 And she said he's at the library. 14:08 I said is something the matter is something bugging you? 14:11 And she said, well, I just don't know. 14:14 I'm just so afraid that I'm going to tell people something that I shouldn't, 14:18 especially 14:19 when it's someone else's coffin I'm seeing. 14:22 And I said is some class that's bugging you? 14:25 And she said it was chemistry. 14:27 I said, well, don't you understand it? 14:30 She said, well, I understand it too well. 14:33 I understand it so well that I think that I'm going to hurt somebody. 14:36 I said, why do you say that? 14:39 Well, and this is what really bugs me. 14:40 I can't really define in my mind whether she met hurting someone in the sense of 14:44 knowing 14:45 this information and telling like her friends that she was starting to associate 14:49 with, that 14:49 she didn't want to associate with them anymore and that she didn't think that drugs 14:53 were a 14:53 good thing or she was going to hurt Mike. 14:58 Kay says it wasn't super clear what Joyce meant, but she had to get going so she 15:01 kind of 15:02 just like told her, you know, okay, keep her head up, things are going to like be 15:04 better. 15:05 And that was the last they ever spoke. 15:07 I don't know who Mike is either because is it Mike, the leader of the Sims group? 15:14 Mike Lindberg? 15:15 Is it Mike Finch? 15:17 I mean, she mentions Mike Finch by his full name later. 15:20 And we're actually going to like have part of that red in just a second. 15:23 So I don't think it's him. 15:25 I don't know, maybe it's another Mike all together. 15:28 If it's Michael Lindberg who's connected to Mark, I think it is real interesting 15:32 because 15:33 when they're talking to police, they said that the Sims movement was very anti-drug, 15:38 but everyone else is talking like this meditation group was caught up in the drug 15:41 world. 15:42 And I mean, you're not going to tell cops in the 70s that you're tied up in the 15:45 drug 15:45 world. 15:46 True. 15:47 But according to our research into Mike, he himself had a drug conviction from 1969. 15:54 I don't have any more details on that drug bus that happened two years prior. 15:59 And I don't see anyone questioning him about that either. 16:03 I also wonder like is drugs about all this like chemistry stuff is about like she 16:08 knows 16:08 something that was going to happen like that's going to hurt people like what you 16:12 say like 16:12 seal someone's coffin. 16:14 What does that mean? 16:17 And this friend Kay was asked what she thinks happened. 16:21 She said this well, I think perhaps she was really hassled about like confidences 16:27 and 16:28 she was associating with transcendental meditation group and they did have a 16:32 tendency to deal 16:32 in drugs. 16:33 So maybe someone told her something about drugs where she found out about something 16:38 and then 16:38 someone got scared about it, you know, and tried to hurt her in some way. 16:43 But Mike, she was also hassled about this chemistry thing and I don't know how this 16:49 Mike Finch fits in other than the fact that he was a teacher and Kim and mentioned 16:53 in 16:54 something with her chemistry and then having the chemistry knowledge and then this 16:59 Mike. 17:00 Now, maybe this Mike had something to do with drugs, you know, and he ties in 17:05 somehow with 17:06 this group or he wanted to tie her down and she didn't want to be tied down. 17:11 So she went to her friends who happened to be on drugs and they tried to help her 17:15 out 17:15 somehow. 17:16 I mean, there are so many little possibilities because she knew so many different 17:20 people 17:20 and she was so open and trusting to these different types of people. 17:24 And I warned that it was dangerous to be that way. 17:28 I'm so confused too. 17:32 Like I need clarifying questions to take some follow up past in present, just some 17:36 follow-ups. 17:38 I believe that Mike Lindbergh died by suicide in 1988, that's according to a death 17:43 certificate 17:44 that we found for someone with his name, middle name, and date of birth. 17:48 I know that Mark is still alive and though we didn't get him on the phone, we did 17:52 reach 17:52 a woman who answered a phone number that is listed for him at a business in Hawaii. 17:57 Okay. 17:58 She told us that she would ask him to call us and she agreed to forward to him an 18:02 email 18:03 from us, but we have not heard back from him. 18:06 And by the way, speaking of Mark, if you were to Google his name, a WSU sexual misconduct 18:11 thing flags. 18:12 It's like the first thing on Google. 18:14 Oh, it turns out that he had the same exact name as his dad and this particular 18:19 incident 18:19 was about his dad, not our mark, but it says that the complaint was filed against 18:24 his 18:24 dad for sexual misconduct while he was a professor at WSU in 2003. 18:30 The incident is listed as resolved and his dad has like long since passed. 18:35 I definitely have more questions about Mark Wadley. 18:39 So if anyone listening knows more wants to reach out, please do [email protected]. 18:46 Or Mark, if you're listening, we would still love to talk to you. 18:51 But there is still yet another person that I want to talk to you. 18:55 The reason Joyce was looking to move in the first place was because of the person 18:59 everyone 19:00 seemed to agree she was actually avoiding that summer. 19:03 Her roommate, Bruce Beerbaum. 19:06 Finally, the roommate, Bruce, dearie, I was waiting for this. 19:10 I knew you were. 19:11 Now, initially, Bruce is treated like just a witness. 19:15 I mean, after Joyce's dad reports her missing and officer tracks Bruce down at work, 19:19 he agrees to let police search their apartment, even helps like check to see if her 19:22 belongings 19:23 are there. 19:24 Which he says they all seem to be accounted for. 19:27 Which by the way, I've been like holding out one little detail on you. 19:31 One of the things that they found in her apartment was her car keys. 19:36 Wait, her car keys were inside the apartment? 19:40 Yes. 19:41 The hang-up is nobody seems to know if those were like the primary set of keys, 19:45 like- 19:46 Which would be so incriminating. 19:47 Which would be so incriminating. 19:48 Or single day. 19:49 Or single day. 19:50 If they were just an extra set that Joyce had to her car, which like I've got one 19:54 of those. 19:55 So have fun spiraling on that for the rest of the week. 19:57 Yeah. 19:58 Back at the apartment, Bruce tells police that he enjoys or just friends nothing 20:02 more. 20:03 And that the last time he saw Joyce was early in the morning of July 23rd when he 20:07 left 20:08 for work. 20:09 Wait, so he's saying she's alive and well on Friday morning? 20:11 Well, he's saying that day one, before many details are known, the story 20:17 conveniently changes 20:18 later. 20:19 Stay tuned. 20:20 But in this first chat, he lays out his schedule. 20:23 So he works for the campus roads and grounds department. 20:27 So that summer, he would typically leave for work before like 7am. 20:30 He says that the morning of July 23rd, Joyce was asleep on the couch when he left. 20:35 And he says that when he got home from work that day, she wasn't there. 20:39 But he knew that she had plans to go home for the weekend so he didn't really think 20:42 anything 20:42 of it. 20:43 And when she didn't show back up after the weekend, he says that, you know, he 20:47 assumed 20:48 that she had extended her stay with her parents. 20:50 Now, they don't really have much reason to think twice about this guy at the time. 20:54 I mean, even though she's telling everyone she knows she doesn't want to sleep in 20:57 the 20:57 same house as him. 20:58 I know. 20:59 The context clues feel like they are jumping off the page now back then. 21:04 I don't know. 21:05 I guess they like didn't see much of a motive. 21:08 But while they were looking in other directions, Bruce was doing odd things, like 21:13 sending this 21:14 weird letter to Joyce's dad on August 11th, 1971. 21:19 This is a few weeks into her disappearance. 21:23 There's a voice actor reading a condensed version of this letter. 21:27 Dear Mr. LaPage, I really don't know where to start. 21:31 Joyce and I had been friends for quite a while. 21:34 She came and went as she pleased as did I. 21:37 I would go to work at 7, return at 5, make dinner, and then leave at 7 for band 21:43 practice. 21:44 Joyce went to classes some around 8, so she was always asleep when I left. 21:48 We ate dinner at the same time. 21:50 In fact, that was about the only time we ever really talked. 21:54 Usually that time was only about an hour at the most. 21:57 I'd help her with her chemistry, and sometimes we give each other a thumbnail 22:01 sketch of what 22:02 her plans were for the next few days, just so someone knew what was going on. 22:08 The week before she disappeared, she seldom ate dinner. 22:11 Even here, she slept in Steven's hall, had lunch in the apartment, then went 22:15 somewhere 22:16 for the afternoon, and she was usually going out to eat. 22:19 With who? 22:20 I never knew. 22:22 In fact, that week we had the least amount of communication of all summer. 22:26 I don't know where she could be. 22:28 The last I saw her was at 6 on Thursday night when she went to her skydiving lesson. 22:34 The last she was seen was at 11.30 on Friday morning, so the last thing I knew was 22:39 that 22:39 she had planned to go to the atomic cup race in Pasco, and that was it. 22:44 I wish I knew more, but I don't. 22:48 The investigator is probably filled you in on everything that he knows, which is 22:52 everything 22:52 I know. 22:53 I've spent about 6 hours with him so far, and there is nothing more that I can 22:57 think of. 22:59 Every time I think of something, he chases it down, but so far, every try has come 23:04 to 23:04 a sickening dead end. 23:06 I realize that you are probably pretty busy now, so I don't know when you will be 23:10 able 23:10 to pick up her possessions. 23:12 I have packed up everything she had in the apartment, so whenever you want to pick 23:16 it up, 23:16 it shouldn't take too much time. 23:18 I might add that while I did this, I looked for possible clues, but there wasn't a 23:22 thing 23:22 that could lead anywhere. 23:23 I had hoped that there might have been, but there wasn't. 23:27 If you could, get here before Saturday, but after that I will be gone. 23:32 Her stuff isn't the closet by the door. 23:35 There is one other problem. 23:37 She and I were going to split the cost of the apartment. 23:40 I was going to pay for the first month, June, and she would pay for July, and the 23:44 guy 23:44 we were sub-leasing from was going to pay for August. 23:48 Well, I have paid for the phone for the two months, including a couple of her long 23:52 distant 23:53 phone calls, and the water, and the rent. 23:56 All of this has thrown me close to $90 in the whole from what I had planned to 24:00 spend. 24:01 Any of this that you could make up would be greatly appreciated, because I am 24:05 living 24:05 on a bit of a tight schedule, and so $90 is quite a large sum of money. 24:10 I'm sorry I couldn't turn her up anywhere. 24:13 I tried as much as I could, but there have been no breaks coming our way. 24:17 I wish she would turn up somewhere. 24:19 Sincerely, Bruce Beerbomb. 24:22 PS, you can have the land lady let you in. 24:25 The check can be left on the table, and I can pick it up next fall. 24:29 I really wish she would surprise me and walk in sometime soon. 24:33 I think about half of the world would be overjoyed to see her. 24:36 Hello, sir. 24:37 I know your daughter is missing, but please bring me money. 24:40 And also, can you just like come get her stuff? 24:42 Well, and who's the half the world that wouldn't be overjoyed to see her? 24:46 And plus, why is he like half talking about her in past tense even though she is 24:51 just 24:52 missing? 24:53 And the plot thickens when one of Joyce's best friends, Jan, who I've talked about 24:58 before, 24:59 she goes to police and says like, hey, I went to go have a look around Joyce's 25:04 apartment, 25:05 and there actually are a few items of Joyce's that are missing. 25:10 And one item that wasn't missing, but I found in the apartment shattered the pieces. 25:21 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and 25:25 coastal communities 25:27 deserve recognition too. 25:28 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives Joyce the 25:33 victims 25:34 through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling. 25:37 But in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig 25:42 through 25:42 the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to 25:46 light. 25:47 Listen to Dark Down East wherever you get your podcasts. 25:54 Jan found Joyce's favorite blue vase broken on top of the refrigerator when she 26:01 went 26:01 to check out Joyce's apartment after she'd gone missing. 26:05 We actually have a photo of Jan with the vase in the background before it was 26:10 broken. 26:11 And I guess when Jan asked Bruce about it, he said that it broke in an argument, 26:16 but he 26:16 didn't explain further. 26:17 Okay. 26:18 Yeah. 26:19 Did police not notice this when they searched the apartment? 26:24 I guess not, because like this is the first mention of it, and I don't see anywhere 26:29 in the file where Bruce was asked about it. 26:32 Again, I would love a follow-up question. 26:35 Yeah. 26:36 I mean, I see a follow-up interview with Bruce where he agrees to take a polygraph, 26:40 and he later 26:41 claims that he took one in 1972, but as far as anyone can tell, he never actually 26:48 did. 26:48 Either that or no record of it was kept. 26:52 But in that documented follow-up interview, he says now that the last time he saw 26:58 Joyce 26:58 was Thursday evening before she went skydiving. 27:02 Oh, but that's not what he said last time. 27:05 The lieutenant was like, "Whoa! 27:07 Clean clock that we got to follow up here." 27:08 Finally. 27:09 He's like, "Well, last time we chatted, you told me she's asleep on your couch 27:13 Friday morning 27:13 when you leave for work." 27:14 And he's like, "Oh, weird. 27:17 I just, I don't work all saying that." 27:19 And I find this real interesting, because remember, the last two people who are 27:24 confirmed 27:25 to have seen Joyce, Hal, and Patty, they went with her to the skydiving lesson on 27:30 Thursday. 27:31 They dropped her back at her apartment Thursday, it's 10 p.m. 27:34 It's late. 27:35 Well, when Patty talked to police, she said something interesting. 27:40 She told them that night Joyce was talking about how she thought police were going 27:45 to 27:45 figure out that she was staying in the dorm illegally. 27:48 She said that she'd been working to move all of her personal items out of there, 27:52 but she 27:52 still had some to get. 27:54 However, she agreed that she wasn't going to go back that night to get them because 27:58 it was late and it was dark. 28:00 She was going to go in the morning. 28:03 So Joyce is telling Patty at 10 p.m. on Thursday that she's not going to Stephen's 28:09 Hall. 28:10 Bruce, in his early stories, says he sees her there Friday morning. 28:15 So did Joyce actually go to Stephen's Hall on her own Thursday night? 28:20 Or is it possible she never even made it there? 28:24 Bruce eventually stops cooperating with the investigation and they never get 28:30 anything 28:31 from him or on him that furthered the case. 28:35 And Bruce is still alive today. 28:38 He graduated and he became a veterinarian and he now lives in Florida. 28:43 Obviously, we had so many questions that we were hoping he would answer for us, but 28:48 when 28:48 our reporter Emily got in touch with him, I thought the response was a little 28:52 strange. 28:53 Like, I would think this would be a significant time in his life. 28:57 I mean, according to his letter, he wanted to do whatever he could to help. 29:01 But when Emma asked to interview him, he said, "No, thank you," and abruptly hung 29:05 up. 29:06 Maybe he's tired of talking about it. 29:08 Or maybe he's gotten wind of what we learned, which is that today, Bruce Beerbomb 29:15 has become 29:16 the primary focus of the Sheriff's Office investigation into Joyce's murder. 29:23 And that is for a few reasons. 29:25 You see, Bruce has been married and divorced several times over the years, like 29:31 five or 29:31 six times since the 70s. 29:33 And almost every time there's a divorce, one of his exes calls the Sheriff's Office 29:39 about 29:39 this case with some weird stories. 29:43 Weird like what? 29:44 Well, one of them called to just straight up say she thinks that he killed Joyce. 29:49 And then another mentioned this coat rack. 29:52 So remember how I said the Gian noticed that some stuff was missing? 29:56 One of those things was a coat rack that was like, it was short. 29:59 It was like three feet high, made of like blue metal with cow horns on the top. 30:03 It was distinctive, it was Joyce's, but it was never found. 30:07 I have a photo of this, too, that I'll publish. 30:11 One of Bruce's exes told police she was pretty sure Bruce had it, but this never 30:17 got confirmed. 30:19 And to be fair, even if it were to get confirmed, stealing from your roommate is 30:23 different than 30:24 killing your roommate, like that one might be nothing. 30:28 But what feels like something is one of Bruce's family members who told police they 30:33 found 30:33 a poem that he wrote about a dead girl looking up at him from the river. 30:39 Now this is all very circumstantial stuff, but it was enough to spark a whole new 30:45 modern 30:46 investigation into Bruce. 30:48 And since then Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers has tried to interview him and 30:53 even sent 30:54 the FBI to his door in Florida to approach him about taking a polygraph, but he won't 30:58 have anything to do with it. 31:00 I mean, what about any criminal history since Joyce's murder? 31:03 Like, has he? 31:04 Yes. 31:05 Yes. 31:06 Oh, there are few interesting things. 31:07 Okay. 31:08 Now our research team searched his name, 35 different criminal filings popped up. 31:12 Most of them seemed to be traffic related, whatever, but one was listed as assault. 31:18 Police reports revealed that it was a domestic battery charge against Bruce for a 31:21 2014 incident 31:23 with his then brand new wife, who by the way was 40 years younger than him, and the 31:27 victim 31:28 says that she was hiding from Bruce at a friend's house. 31:32 Reports say that he found where she was staying and took her purse, pinned her up 31:35 against 31:35 the wall, and Bruce later told officers that he was just trying to like get back a 31:39 credit 31:39 card that she stole from him. 31:41 He denied ever touching her, but there were two other witnesses to the incident, 31:46 and he was 31:46 charged with domestic battery. 31:49 And there's something else in Bruce's record that's worth mentioning, and this is 31:53 something 31:53 we really had to dig for because it didn't pop up in any public databases. 31:58 But no, I say he's like a veterinarian. 32:00 Well, when we looked up his license, we found some disciplinary actions against him, 32:06 one 32:06 of which was an incident in 2003, where he was accused of giving animal medications 32:11 to 32:11 his kids. 32:13 According to court records, the Montana Board of Veterinary Medicine found that he 32:17 committed 32:18 five violations, and he was disciplined for them. 32:21 Are they okay? 32:23 So yeah, the kids are okay, but the reports don't go into detail as far as like, 32:28 why he 32:28 did this? 32:29 They do note though that it happened regularly. 32:33 And they say that one of them might have been for an ear infection. 32:36 So like maybe this animal medicine was like the same as like the human medicine 32:39 that 32:39 happened sometimes. 32:40 He decided to use it, since like he already had access to it. 32:43 He doesn't matter. 32:44 It's still a huge no no. 32:46 Yeah. 32:47 And they found out about this because his ex-wife reported him for it. 32:52 And there are more disciplinary actions. 32:53 So like there's a more recent one that occurred in Florida where he practices today. 32:59 I don't know what that is though. 33:00 We filed records requests for the reports and as of now they're still pending. 33:04 But I don't like any of this that's on the books for him. 33:07 Still though, friendly reminder that none of these things prove that he's capable 33:13 of 33:13 murder. 33:14 Yeah, 100%. 33:15 But if we're spippling theories, I'd like to remind everyone that at least one set 33:19 of 33:19 Joyce's keys were found inside the apartment that she shared with Bruce. 33:23 Plus, if you worked at a college, would he have had access to Steven's hall? 33:28 All we can do now in 2026 is guess because nobody seems to know for sure. 33:36 But like, even if he didn't, does that matter because like we know Joyce is getting 33:40 through 33:40 an unlocked window and anyone could have gotten access to Steven's hall the same 33:44 way she 33:45 did. 33:46 And I hear you on all the things that are like suspicious, but there are holes in 33:50 the 33:50 Bruce theory. 33:51 Like, to me, it makes a lot more sense that if something happened involving him, 33:56 that 33:56 it would happen at the apartment. 33:58 I mean, unless he followed her? 33:59 Yeah. 34:00 And I mean, to be fair, we still don't know where she was killed. 34:03 I just like, I can't get past the carpet being taken from Steven's hall. 34:08 But there was no blood on the missing carpet. 34:10 It's basically clean. 34:12 And if the FBI is correct about her being stabbed, like when you expect blood, 34:18 though even 34:19 that is an if all these years later, I personally think that's like a wrong 34:24 determination 34:25 that they made. 34:26 I know that's like a bold statement, but it is an idea that Sheriff Myers has 34:30 already 34:30 had before I came along. 34:32 Now, he doesn't know how long Joyce was in the canyon before she was found. 34:37 What early investigators called puncture marks are like that look like it could 34:40 have been 34:40 from a knife like stab wounds on the bones he thinks could be a sign of animal 34:46 activity 34:47 instead. 34:48 Oh, maybe she was killed in a way that didn't involve a messy crime scene. 34:53 But you would think if she had been stabbed, there would be something on the carpet, 34:56 even 34:57 if like she wasn't killed on the carpet, she would still be like bleeding out there. 35:00 It's still a blood on her that would get on the carpet. 35:04 So is it possible she died another way? 35:06 Okay. 35:07 Then where did that happen? 35:09 Is it where her clothes ended up? 35:13 Because they never found those. 35:14 They just found the pair of slashed underwear that they believed were hers. 35:18 Could they test any of that for DNA? 35:20 I know the underwear got tested along with like the blankets over the years, but so 35:24 far 35:24 they haven't gotten anything meaningful from it. 35:28 But you know, new tests are always coming available. 35:34 And it's not like they have zero evidence. 35:37 Joyce's letters and diary pages that investigators found at Stevens Hall have 35:41 always been a major 35:42 key to this investigation. 35:45 They gave detectives a unique glimpse into Joyce's personal life in the days 35:48 leading up 35:49 to her murder and Joyce was detailed in her letters. 35:53 There are names of several people that I haven't even mentioned that she was 35:57 hanging out 35:58 with that summer. 35:59 And one of those names jumps off the pages at me and someone that I can't stop 36:03 thinking 36:04 about. 36:05 This is one of the final theories I'll mention, and that's the Steve Sully theory. 36:10 So you know the letter where Joyce talks about Mark strangling people? 36:14 Yeah. 36:15 How could I forget? 36:16 Well, in the very next paragraph she talks about Steve and she says this. 36:22 Steve Sully is here this summer and has befriended me. 36:25 He is quite unstable sometimes and always moody. 36:29 However, he is going to become initiated into TM this week. 36:33 So he shouldn't suffer too long. 36:36 He is directing a 415 communications class, which involves taping and filming 36:40 commercials, 36:41 advertisements, news, skits, plays, etc. on TV. 36:47 Because there are no girls in the class, I have added it for one credit and do 36:50 nothing 36:51 but goof off in front of the camera once or twice a week. 36:55 So Steve was shooting Joyce in commercials for like a comms class and this made 36:59 investigators 37:00 curious about him, also curious if like those commercials ever aired on TV or like 37:05 what happened, but they couldn't ever find commercials. 37:09 Even though this is one of the things they actually went looking for. 37:12 Now that doesn't mean they don't exist, just that it was a class project thing. 37:16 Like it's kind of the sense that I get, but like they don't actually say that for 37:20 sure. 37:21 But we dug into the case file and Steve Sully comes up several other times. 37:32 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and 37:36 coastal communities 37:37 deserve recognition too. 37:39 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to 37:44 victims 37:45 through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling. 37:48 Set in my home state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig 37:52 through 37:53 the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to 37:57 light. 37:57 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts. 38:02 On August 10th, 1971, Steve Sully goes to the police department to tell them that 38:10 he has 38:11 Joyce's typewriter and he wants to turn it in for safekeeping. 38:15 Officers ask when he last saw Joyce. 38:17 He says July 21st, there's no follow-up questioning about that last interaction, 38:24 right? 38:24 Now the next time Steve comes up is via this phone call tip in the spring of 1972, 38:31 not 38:31 long after Joyce's body was found. 38:34 The tipster says that they saw Joyce on campus on July 19th, 1971 at the student 38:41 union. 38:42 So this is just like a day or two before she goes missing. 38:45 And they say that Joyce was talking to Steve and Steve left and Joyce in this tipster 38:51 walked 38:51 to the library together and Joyce quote, "appeared to be distressed." 38:56 The tipster said that she asked Joyce like, "What is wrong?" and Joyce said that 39:01 she had 39:01 gotten a letter from a man that she knew and that he was coming to visit her. 39:06 But that Joyce was nervous because whoever this man was, she didn't trust him. 39:12 And again, the tipster saying she is visibly upset, but she refused to identify 39:16 this guy, 39:18 just said that he would be around in a few days. 39:22 To me at least, it kind of sounds like she's referring to someone else, maybe Mike 39:27 Finch. 39:27 It doesn't sound necessarily like she's referencing Steve. 39:30 I think that's a fair assumption, but I do think it's interesting and worth 39:35 mentioning 39:36 that one of the only tips in the case file that says Joyce was distressed in the 39:40 days leading 39:40 up to her disappearance is one where she had just been with Steve. 39:45 What were they talking about that made her visibly upset? 39:48 And was Joyce trying to make a cover story for like, what had her worked up? 39:54 Because here's another interesting tidbit about Steve. 39:57 Joyce's roommate Bruce tells police during his interview that Joyce had dated Steve 40:02 sophomore year. 40:03 And Bruce says that not long before Joyce went missing, Steve told Joyce that she 40:06 was 40:07 quote, "the source of all his troubles." 40:10 And that Steve had been trying to see Joyce, and this information makes police 40:15 circle back 40:16 to Steve. 40:17 Only to find out, guess what? 40:20 He just up in quitschool and moved away. 40:24 This is April 1972 when they're finding this out. 40:28 Basically the report says that this guy named Jay Foster told police that Steve quitschool 40:33 returned to his home in New York, like, and this was about like two weeks before 40:37 the end 40:38 of the fall semester. 40:39 So I want to be clear, it's not like he up and left that summer. 40:44 It was a few months later, but that also means that it's like while school is 40:48 happening. 40:49 It's not like at the end of the year, at the end of the semester, it's in the 40:52 middle 40:52 of the school. 40:53 Right, so why? 40:54 Now, it's not until two years after that, that police sit down with Steve. 40:59 By then he has returned to WSU. 41:02 He is re-enrolled in school. 41:04 And he says yes, he was shooting Joyce in commercials for class, but he denies that 41:08 they 41:08 ever dated. 41:09 He says he was dating another girl named Mary, and that's actually how he met Joyce. 41:13 And he says that the last interaction they had on July 21st was at his apartment, 41:18 and 41:18 he says that Joyce had been helping him with some typing assignments at night. 41:21 So she would like come over to the apartment with her typewriter, which explains 41:25 why he 41:25 had her typewriter. 41:27 Sure. 41:28 Is his apartment anywhere near her car? 41:30 I mean, his apartment was at 918 Harvey Road, so it's not too far, it's like less 41:36 than 41:36 half a mile away. 41:37 It's like an eight-minute walk from my parents' part. 41:40 It's all like basically a college campus. 41:41 Everything's like relatively close, but not super close. 41:45 But they asked Steve the important question, like, why did you quit school back in 41:49 71? 41:49 Yes. 41:50 Why did you like move away? 41:52 And he said that he moved away and withdrew because he ran out of money. 41:57 He also says, I guess he was thinking about joining her meditation group, but like 42:00 didn't 42:00 do that because he was so broke as well. 42:03 Now notably absent from the questioning of Steve is about that tipster saying that 42:07 Joyce 42:07 was visibly upset after she's seen talking to him on campus on the 19, which is 42:12 frustrating, 42:14 but at this point, I know. 42:15 Doesn't surprise me. 42:16 The case file indicates that Steve then agrees to take a polygraph that officers 42:20 believed 42:21 he was being truthful in the end, but I can't find a copy of the actual polygraph 42:26 test 42:27 in the case file. 42:28 Like everyone, we tried reaching Steve, but we haven't heard back yet. 42:33 Emily did reach his college roommate from back then, Jay. 42:37 He didn't really remember Joyce's case, but he did confirm for us that Steve lived 42:41 with 42:41 him that summer on Harvey Road. 42:43 He said that Steve was a good guy, easy to get along with, and he couldn't remember 42:47 why 42:48 Steve quit school. 42:49 However, he did not get the sense that it was money related. 42:54 Jay told us that Steve's girlfriend at the time spent a lot of time at their 42:57 apartment, 42:57 but he couldn't remember her name. 42:59 It was probably Mary. 43:01 We also tried to reach her, but no luck. 43:05 I told you, Joyce was murdered 55 years ago, and I want to give credit where credit 43:10 is 43:10 due. 43:11 Usually when we cover cases this old, especially when they start as a disappearance, 43:14 the 43:15 theme of the file is like, oh, you know, she probably just like left on her own, 43:19 walked 43:19 away from her life. 43:20 She's going to join a hippie comm, you know, whatever, especially in the 70s, but 43:24 investigators 43:24 worked this case pretty hard from the very beginning, long before her body was 43:29 found, 43:29 and long before any modern technology was there to help them. 43:33 Sheriff Myers told us that if Joyce had been killed today, or even in like this 43:39 decade, 43:40 there is no doubt in his mind that they would have caught her killer, but somehow 43:45 her killer 43:45 has gotten away with it, but they're not giving up. 43:48 They are constantly looking for new evidence on old items and giving new eyes to 43:53 the stuff 43:54 that has been there all along. 43:56 There is so much to this case, so many little pieces of info, weird details I could 44:03 do, 44:04 a limited series, or write a book, I literally could do another episode on a whole 44:08 new suspect 44:09 that we found in like the 11th hour in the case file if you want to hit me up in 44:13 the comments. 44:14 I just, I want to dissect all of it because I know that the truth is in there 44:19 somewhere. 44:20 I want to know more about Mark's history. 44:23 Was the big drug bust two years before? 44:27 And I know I mentioned the fact that Mike is deceased, we believe, Mark wouldn't 44:32 get in touch 44:32 with this. 44:33 Emily did try to get in touch with Celeste by email, and she was supposed to call 44:39 Emily, 44:39 but as of this recording, we have not heard from her. 44:43 I mean, I am extremely curious as to what she would have to say. 44:47 Same. 44:48 I mean, other questions I have, like, how did Joyce get to Steven's Hall that night? 44:52 And she at all. 44:54 And who all knew that she was going to be there? 44:57 You know, they spent a good amount of time looking at the tile setter in this case, 45:01 but there were two other contractors on campus at one point with him. 45:04 I mean, he mentions them. 45:06 And the only reason they even knew about the tile setter, at all, was because of 45:09 the campus 45:10 police officer who just happened to see the tile setter's car parked in Steven's 45:14 Hall 45:14 in the middle of the night. 45:16 By the way, there is a tip in the case file about that guy. 45:21 The campus cop? 45:23 Yeah, the tip says that he was a suspect in a molestation case near Art's Hall just 45:27 a few months before Joyce went missing. 45:29 And then after Joyce went missing, he up and quits the force. 45:33 OK, comments are not, I personally would, like, a limited series on this. 45:38 Do what? 45:39 Not. 45:40 Tempt me. 45:41 There's also this one strange detail that I thought was weird, like, in the early 45:44 days 45:45 when Joyce was missing person, they contacted the phone company to pull any long 45:49 distance 45:50 calls from her apartment. 45:51 I don't think they could get, like, full phone records, but they could see long 45:54 distance 45:55 calls back then. 45:56 And they make note that there was one call on July 15th to a number in Moses Lake, 46:01 Washington. 46:02 Now, granted, this is like a week before, but they track this number to someone 46:06 named Russell 46:07 Hanson. 46:08 When they call his wife answers, and she's like, I don't know Joyce. 46:13 I don't know Bruce. 46:14 This is the calls coming from their place. 46:15 I don't know either one of them. 46:17 They never found out who called that number. 46:21 Now it's a disconnected number now, 509, 762, 9234. 46:26 We just get a disconnected tone when we call it. 46:29 So I don't know what that means. 46:32 But the only other time that Moses Lake seems to come up in the files is when they 46:37 went 46:37 looking for Mike Finch in 2013. 46:40 He lived in Moses Lake then. 46:42 I think the truth is still out there. 46:46 And things to Joyce's brother Bruce LaPage, there is still an act of cash reward up 46:49 for 46:50 grabs, a pretty hefty one, $100,000. 46:53 $60,000 for information leading to an arrest and another 40,000 if it leads to a 46:59 conviction. 47:00 Joyce's parents have since passed away, and Bruce LaPage is now leading the charge 47:04 to 47:05 get justice for his sister, even doing a lot of his own investigating. 47:09 But the sad thing is, he told us that he's kind of given up hope. 47:13 He isn't really expecting to ever find out who killed his sister. 47:18 So maybe we can help. 47:21 Crime junkies, if you know anything about the murder of Joyce LaPage, call the Whitman 47:26 County Sheriff's Office at 509-397-6266 and ask for Sheriff Brett Meyers. 47:35 No tip is too small, and you can also email us [email protected]. 47:41 And give Joyce's brother something to hope for. 47:59 You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, CrimeJunkey.com. 48:03 And you can put a little less on Instagram @CrimeJunkeyPodcast. 48:06 We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. 48:11 [Music] 48:41 CrimeJunkey is an audio chuck production. 48:49 I think chuck would approve. 48:54 Whispers in the dark, phenomenon that slip past the logic, legends that refuse to 49:01 die. 49:02 When the unknown stirs, its trail leads to our podcast, So Supernatural, I'm Yvette 49:08 Gentile. 49:09 And I'm her sister, Roshephe Carrero. 49:12 Together, we explore all of the world's most bizarre mysteries. 49:17 Listen to So Supernatural every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts.