The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back. Welcome back everyone.
And welcome back to me. Yeah, you were feeling a little sick last week. Yeah, I'm happy to be here and serve the podcast once again. We're glad to have you back. I missed you. I miss you whenever we're apart, honestly. But I was just in the room over. Yes. Alright, episode 45? Episode 45. Alright, I believe this is a missing case, so I'm looking forward to get that name out there and learning about this person. Yeah, let's just get into it, huh? Sounds good.
Today I have for you the missing person case of Jason Jolkowski. And this takes place in June of 2001 in Omaha, Nebraska. But first, a little bit about Jason. Jason is 19 years old in 2001. He was born June 24, 1981, and he would have turned 42 years old this past weekend at the time of recording. In 2001, Jason is 6'1", 160 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes.
He lived with his parents and younger brother in Omaha, Nebraska, and was working to save up money to return to Iowa Western College, where he had been studying to become a radio DJ. He had gotten a job at the local college radio station, 89.7 FM, the River, where he went by JJ on the air. Jason has above average intelligence. He had a knack for recalling baseball stats at the drop of a hat. But he often had trouble with his interpersonal communication skills, according to his family.
Jason was heavily involved in his parish at the Holy Name Catholic Church. The Sunday before he went missing, he read during the Sunday service.
22-31, and Romans 5: 1-5. He would often spend his free time at church praying as part of the parish's continuous prayer program. Everyone described Jason as a shy, quiet young man who would keep to himself, but would also go out of his way to help someone. And now the timeline of events. On Tuesday, June 12, 2001, the night before Jason disappears, he spends it with his family and family friends.
His mother, Kelly Murphy, recalls that they had played a game where the goal was trying to make others laugh. Jason would always laugh first. Everything was good and he was in high spirits. The next day, Wednesday, June 13, 2001, Jason, at this time, worked at Fazoli's restaurant but had recently gotten a new job that he was going to start in the next week that he was very excited for. His new job paid more and had a tuition program, which would help him get back to college faster.
He was scheduled to work at Fazoli's at 5.30 p.m., but Jason was called at 10.30 a.m. and asked if he could come in early. Jason's car was in the body shop getting worked on, so he said he would have to walk the four miles to get there. Jason's mom, Kelly, said that it would have been normal for Jason to take the long walk since his car was out of commission. Jason hops in the shower and starts to get ready for work.
Before he leaves, his phone rings again and it's Jason's co-worker, Teresa Redd. She says that she'll pick him up and drive him to work. Jason asks that Teresa pick him up from Benson High School. Teresa recalls the conversation going as follows. Jason says, quote, OK, just meet me at Benson. And Teresa replies, OK, you better be there, end quote. They agreed to meet at 11 o'clock.
According to Jason's family, he struggled with giving directions, so he picked the high school, which was eight blocks away from his home, and both him and his co-worker, Teresa, had graduated from there. At 10.45 a.m., Jason's 13-year-old brother heard a noise outside and saw Jason pulling the trash cans up from the curb. A neighbor, Chester Link, also sees Jason pulling the garbage cans up.
Jason is wearing Blackwork slacks and his Blackwork shoes and is wearing a white Chicago Cubs t-shirt and wearing a Chicago Cubs baseball hat. He is carrying his red Fasoli's work shirt. Jason was last seen heading towards Benson High School. Teresa arrives at the high school and waits for Jason. She waits about 30 minutes before returning Fazoli's. When she arrives, she calls Jason's house back to ask why he didn't show up.
Michael, Jason's younger brother, picks up the phone and it's discovered here that Jason is missing. Fazoli continues to call a few times throughout the day looking for Jason, but he also fails to show up for his 5.30 p.m. shift. When Jason's parents return home from work that day, that's when they are made aware that Jason is missing. Jason's parents, Kelly and Jim, believe that they had to wait 24 hours before they reported him missing.
Investigators are later able to get the surveillance footage from the high school which showed that Jason never arrived there. So the next day, Thursday, June 14th, Jason's family reports him missing the next morning. Police write Jason off as a runaway and also, since he is technically an adult, he has the right to be missing. Jason's mom, Kelly, says, quote, And then it took at least another 10 days before the police took Jason's disappearance seriously.
They assumed this was a typical teen runaway scenario, end quote. So 10 days truly do pass without any movement on Jason's case by police. So on Saturday, June 23rd, 2001, this is 10 days since Jason has been missing, police began canvassing the neighborhood where Jason was last seen. His mom, Kelly, says, quote, It's like he disappeared off of the face of the earth, end quote. The family believe firmly that Jason did not run away. When he left his home, he had no more than $60 on him.
If he wanted to run away, they believe he would have waited for his car to get out of the shop. He would have picked up his last paycheck and he wouldn't have worn his work pants and work shoes. Nothing besides the clothes he left with was missing from his room. Investigators say that there had been no cell phone activity or bank activities since Jason disappeared. On Sunday, June 24th, this is 11 days, Jason's 20th birthday comes and goes.
His family hopes that he'll walk through the door at any moment and this nightmare will be over. On Monday, June 25th, so this is now 12 days, police investigate Mahoney State Park. It's about 20 miles west of Omaha near the Platte River. A witness called in and said she saw a man matching Jason's description at the park. When police arrive, the witness is given a photo of Jason to look at and she becomes unsure if the man she saw was him.
Police continue to search the park for several hours but find no sign of Jason. On Tuesday, July 3rd, 2001, this is 3 weeks now, a reward fund is started by Jason's parents' employers for any information that will lead to him. His family hopes that with offering money that the tips will start to come in. On Friday, July 13th, 2001, so this is one month since Jason's disappearance, in that time he did not reach out to the auto shop that was repairing his car.
His parents will eventually retrieve the car from the shop and there is still no cell phone activity or bank activity. And as of 2023, there has never been any cell phone or bank activity in regards to Jason. Family also do not believe that he would harm himself. The family believe that his strong faith would have gone against this and he was excited about his life. He had a new job that he was looking forward to and his parents say that he was turning his situation around financially.
He was very hopeful. Police say they have no leads in the case. On Sunday, July 22nd, 2001, Jason's family hold a prayer service at their home church. His mom Kelly says, quote, we feel someone somewhere knows something about where he is. We have to find that someone who may have seen something, end quote. And then the next big update we got is June 13th, 2002. So that's a year that Jason has been missing. But police still say they have no leads and no suspects at the one year mark.
Jason's mom Kelly says, quote, I think we'll always continue to have hope. We have to hope and we will continue to have hope until we know what has occurred, end quote. And then each year at the anniversary, the local media will run stories about Jason's disappearance, but there's never any movement on the case. There's never any big updates or new information revealed.
In October of 2003, Jason's parents start Project Jason and Project Jason's mission was to help families of missing individuals. And they also aimed to pass out free ID kits for Omaha's children. They will run Project Jason until 2018. But really, those are the last updates in regards to Jason. There's lots of stories about his family and how they've continued to cope with the grief of this loss. But like I mentioned before, there's no updates in those stories.
In 2021, police say that the case is still open, but there are no leads and there are no suspects. To date, police have never said if they have been able to collect any evidence in this case. So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of Jason Jolkowski or his whereabouts today, please call the Omaha police at 402-444-5657 or you can contact Detective Jim Reising directly at 402-444-4127.
And the sources for the timeline today come from Omaha World Herald, the Des Moines Register, Lincoln Journal Star, Fremont Tribune, KETV, W-O-W-T News, The Catholic Voice, and CNN.com. So that is the case of Jason Jolkowski. Yeah, it's so odd to me that it just kind of seems like it's a case that just disappeared like him, but there's just nothing. Like he vanished. It's pretty odd for the date and time and his size. Yeah, and the middle of the day.
Yeah. But also, you know, sometimes perfect circumstances offer up like a camouflage like that or something, sadly, like sinister to go down or like a crime. I'm hoping that it's a case of left and didn't want to be found, as sad as that is, but like, I guess that's best case scenario right now and that eventually his family finds out where he is. Yeah. Yeah, it's confusing. I don't really understand what happened.
I couldn't remember if you said was that coworker interviewed more or that interaction? I don't know. It seems like that would be like where there would be more information, I guess. And that's not to say that I'm pointing a finger. It's just, it seems like maybe you are one of the last people to speak to him. I guess that's all that I'm saying. Yeah. His coworker, Teresa. Teresa, yes.
I believe she was interviewed and we get a little bit of a report from her and newspaper accounts as to like what happens.
If you research the story on your own, one thing that I did come across a couple of times, but I just couldn't find any other media reports to substantiate it, but something I came across like in true crime blogs, that there's a possibility that his coworker who was going to pick him up from the high school and take him into work, that instead of returning to work, she went to a gas station first to call his house and say, where are you? I've been waiting.
And that call would have happened between 11:15 and 11:45. And Jason left his house at 10:45. So somewhere within that hour is where that conversation could have possibly happened. But from everything I read and was able to find in the media reports, she goes back to Fazoli's and calls from there to be like, why didn't you show up? And that's when she gets his younger brother. And they kind of realized that he's missing.
But I don't know if they kind of write it off as like, well, maybe he did decide to walk. Maybe he's coming in at his scheduled time at 530. But his parents don't seem to be informed that Jason is missing until they get home from work. Yeah. I mean, just like he just walked away. It's just kind of what it seems like. Yeah. And police, you know, didn't jump into this case. What does that mean? They didn't jump into the case? You know, he was reported missing the next morning.
And it took them about 10 days before they started to really look at his case and treat it as a disappearance. They thought he was over 18. Yeah, because he was 19. And they figured he was like a teen runaway. That's bananas. That's bananas, you guys. There's something I haven't understood about like, the law to like, just quickly make that call or why it's one that we gravitate to when I can't say, you know, for certain, if there's a statistic out there that someone is accumulated.
But it seems like statistically, that's the wrong call. It seems like maybe listen to the people who know them. What feels like the people closest to the person, you know, missing or whatever are usually the people who are immediately under suspicion. And I am to a degree, I understand that.
But I feel like if intuitively, if you're doing your job correctly, or serving the job's true purpose, then like, you judge based on feeling, which is how they make their very first judgment call of, oh, I was supposed to run away. I have a feeling. So it's like, okay, well, if you can make a call based on that feeling, maybe make it off of this feeling. You know? Right. It's just like, I call BS on, I call BS on like rash decision making like that, especially in the first, like dig deeper.
You know, ask more questions. Ask more questions. If there's not an answer, if you haven't scraped the bottom of the barrel, then you keep going when someone isn't there. Right. So I learned from everything that I read about Jason, he loved his family. He loved hanging out with his family. He would be on the phone with friends and be like, hang on, I have to go tuck my little brother in. Like, he loved his family.
Yeah, like listening to you talk about him, I was like, oh, he kind of sounds like me. I'm like, this dude, like loves his car. Like, and when you know, he's someone who's doing well, he like feels good about that and like wants to stay on that trajectory. Probably wouldn't run away in the middle of like succeeding. You know, he's 19, he's getting older. He like needed a win. He was like, he was in a winning season. Totally. And the people around him knew that.
So to say like, oh, probably run away. It's like, no, you know, he wasn't, didn't display any, anything like with like, you know, drinking or drugs where, where sometimes like random behavior like that would make sense. There's no evidence of that. Right. Or at least to our knowledge, something smells off. Yeah. And his parents feel firmly that if he was running away, like just at the basics, he would not have worn his like work clothes to run away. He would have been in tennis shoes and jeans.
That's where I said it. We, it sounded like me. I was like, this kid's a planner. Like he loves his car. He would have called for his paycheck. Like I'm planning my runaway. I would have been the same way. I've been like, well, I need to make sure I have X amount of this for this. Like have a plan in place. You know, he's not a random dude. Right. And this is random. Right. What happened to him? Because obviously that wasn't his plan for the day.
Like, it's not like he told someone, oh, I'm walking to work at 530. I have to walk. The Fazoli's was four miles from his house. So you know, that's like an hour and a half, two hour walk, depending on how fast you are. But you know, it's not like he told somebody, hey, I'm going to be walking like around three o'clock to get to Fazoli's. And you know, that was his plan. But this, it was like he was called in and he's like, okay, I'm going to start walking.
And then the coworker is like, no, no, no, no, no. Like I'll come get you. This will be faster. Everything that he had planned for that day was different. So you know, if somebody had been watching him, it's like, that doesn't seem like what happened here at all. You know, like. Yeah. I'm not going to speculate like what I think. I believe that the family probably lives in their mind, like within the worst fear of what they're speculating, what happened to their loved one.
So I don't really, that doesn't really like serve our purpose here. In my opinion, as a true crime podcaster, what I think needs to happen is like, whoever knows something, I know, I believe 100% that someone who is alive has some serious information on what, on like on what happened in the whereabouts of him. Absolutely.
Somebody knows something that needs, if you're out there, if you're listening, like now's the time, now's the time to come forward and say something like this family deserves peace. However, he comes home, he deserves to come home. And hopefully that is alive and well, but you know, like there's much peace that can be brought to the family. It should be brought to them. His mom is an amazing woman and she's talked a lot about Jason and has really kept Jason's case in the media over the years.
And one thing she said that I thought was really perfect and, you know, summarize this kind of what you said is like, she has the right to hope until she knows what has actually occurred. I think it is the family's right to hold on to hope that he will come home safe and sound and walk through the door at 42 years of age and be like, let me tell you about the last 22 years.
But again, if you know something about what happened to Jason Jolkowski in June of 2001, please call the Omaha police at 402-444-5657 or you can contact detective Jim Reising at 402-444-4127. I just want to wish him a happy birthday. Yeah. I know his birthday is yesterday, right? Yesterday. We're recording this on Sunday and it'll be posted on Monday. Yeah. Happy birthday, Jason. Happy birthday, Jason, wherever you are, buddy. We're thinking about you.
Yeah. Send a big love to you and your family. Think that wraps us up for episode 45. Yeah. So like I say at the end of every podcast, if you can, while you're getting ready to go to your next show, if you could leave us review, I saw we had a couple new ratings in Apple podcasts and in Spotify. So thank you for leaving those five stars. Greatly appreciate it. If you have the time, if you could write us a little review in Apple podcasts.
Wow. You become a huge hero in our home and we talk about you all the time and great esteem. So if you want that treatment, go ahead and write it and you will have. She usually runs into whatever room I'm in to read them to me. And most of the time I get a little misty eyed, I'd say. So if you want to cause that reaction in our home this week, you know how to do it. It's a pretty normal occurrence in our home. Yeah. Even just five flame emojis. Yeah. Yeah. I would be over the moon about it.
You can follow us at Instagram search cold and missing will pop up. We'll have pictures of Jason to show what he looks like and also some age progress photos to show what he would look like in his forties. So we can keep our eyes peeled for him. And if you want to learn more about us, about the podcast, other cases, you can head to our website, cold and missing.com and there we have all our episodes. They're organized really well. There's a couple of blog posts for episodes.
There's information about your lovely hosts. That's Eli and I. You can donate to us. Everything you need to know is at our webpage, cold and missing.com. And with that, have a good week and stay safe, y'all. Stay safe, y'all.