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 to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome back, everyone. Nothing too exciting at the top to chit -chat about, so I think we should just go ahead and get into it this week. Yeah, I think so too. We are on episode 128 and we are on a missing persons case. Let's get into it. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top. There are some mentions of death by suicide throughout
the podcast. Today, we are talking about the missing person case of Reny Jose and this takes place in March of 2014 in Panama City Beach, Florida. But first, a little bit about Reny. Reny is 21 years old in 2014. He is a mechanical engineering major at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is a terrific student. He has a 4 .0 grade point average and was on track to graduate
the next year. When Reny wasn't working on school, he liked to play pickup games of volleyball with friends and loved spending time with his family. Right as our timeline picks up, Reny was about to head out for spring break. He had called his mother before he and 22 other students headed from Rice University to Panama City Beach. Reny and the 22 other students had rented a beach house for a week. His mom tells Reny to have a good time and to be safe. And now a
timeline of events. Saturday, March 1, 2014. Reny and the other students make it to the rental house and get spring break started. The house is on Front Beach Road on the west side of Panama City Beach. The house sits right on the water. It looks beautiful. Over those first few days of spring break, it's unclear exactly what the friends were getting up to. I imagine it was a lot of typical spring break activities, hanging out in the sun and partying with friends.
On Monday, March 3rd, the group has been at the beach house since Saturday. Reny was last seen around 7 p .m. It's unclear exactly where he was seen or what the circumstances exactly were. At least one person said that Reny had taken LSD that night and had started talking about suicide. The last confirmed sighting of Reny was 7 p .m. The next day, Tuesday, March 4th, that day started like many other days over the spring break. A cleaning crew picked up the beach
at 6 a .m. before spring breakers covered the place. At the nearby beach house, Reny’s friends started to get worried when there were still no signs of him that morning. It appears that at some point in those morning to early afternoon hours, people from the house found clothing of Reny’s, specifically his sleeping pants and socks, hanging on a railing near the beach outside. The clothes had not been there earlier when the cleaning crews had come through, otherwise they
would have been thrown out. At around 11 a .m., friends call the police to report Reny missing. At around 4 p .m., one of Reny’s friends also calls his parents to tell them that he is missing. Immediately, his parents start making plans to head to Florida to look for their son. When police arrive to the Beach House, they look around the property. They find in a trash can out back more
of Reny’s clothing and his cell phone. Inside Reny’s room in the rental house, his laptop, wallet, and suitcase were all found there inside. Nothing of note is mentioned to be missing except for Reny himself. The sheriff's office launches the air unit to help search the water. Since clothing of his was found on the beach and there was talk of him on LSD, Police think he could have gone into the water on drugs and drowned. However, when police were searching the house,
they didn't find any other drugs. The next day, Wednesday, March 5th, Reny has been missing since Monday night. Reny’s parents arrive at the beach house to help search. To their surprise, most of the students had left. Of the 22 other spring breakers, 16 had packed up and left from their spring break trip. His mother said of the students left, quote, there were two girls and four boys left. Two of them didn't even want
to talk to us, end quote. It appears that the Panama City Beach police never got the chance to talk to all of the students who were at the house near the time that Reny went missing. Of the six left, it appears that different stories emerged. Again, his mother says, quote, one was saying, I don't know where Reny went. The other one was saying, I went to Walmart. The other one was saying, I was sleeping. And then the other one said, he went for a walk, end quote.
It also sounds like of the six students that were left, one of them is the person who told police that Reny had taken LSD and was talking about suicide. This also caught the family off guard. Reny had been excited about graduating and had big plans for his life and was looking forward to the future. Reny had never talked to anyone in his family about thoughts of suicide. For the next few days, police focused their searches
on the water. Police believe that it is most likely that Reny went into the water and drowned. They have their marine unit searching the Gulf of Mexico for any sign of him, but nothing is found. On Friday, March 7th, Reny has been missing since Monday night. Investigators continue to focus on the water, but police also notify other counties to be on the lookout as well as the U .S. Coast Guard. Police do start to expand their search a little bit here from the water.
They search abandoned properties near the beach house and still no sign of Reny is found. At the one -week mark, police say that they are still searching for Reny. but do not believe that any foul play was involved. They believe that he took LSD, decided to go swimming, and drowned. Very quickly after this, the case appears
to go cold. In September of 2014, Reny has been missing for over six months, and his family hold a demonstration outside of the FBI headquarters to try to get the FBI's attention to take over the case. The FBI do send out an agent to talk with the family, but it doesn't appear that they ever officially pick up the case or even get involved in it. At the one -year mark of Reny’s disappearance, his family heads back to Panama City Beach to raise awareness for his case and
to ask the community for information. If anyone remembers anything, please let them know. Maybe returning spring breakers would remember something from the year before. This trip back to the beach will become a yearly trip for the family, something that they continue to do to this day. Over the years, the case will go cold, but the family will fight to keep the case in the media and raise awareness. The family hires a private investigator
to try to get more information. They especially want to talk to all of the students who are at the beach house with Reny, but no one talks much to the family, and a few of them even lawyer up. In March of 2024, it's been 10 years since Reny vanished and there have been no new leads
or updates on his case. Police say that they still work the case if a tip is called in, but no physical sign of Reny has ever been found since that first day, when his clothes were found at the beach and in the trash can along with his cell phone. Police say that they have talked to all 22 students. Captain Daffy says, quote, End quote. But that is all we know about the
disappearance of Reny Jose. So if you know anything about the disappearance of Reny Jose or his whereabouts today, please call the Bay County Sheriff's Office at 850 -747 -4700. So that is the case of Reny Jose. I have to say, just at the top of Reny’s case, it always gives me... knowing that they went missing more recently. I think I have spoken on this before in prior cases that you've brought to cold and missing, but the immediacy always feels palpable when
you're listing out the timeline. And I know there wasn't a ton within his timeline, but I do think for this case, the timeline is tight. I'm very, you know, I'm very grateful that you brought his case here, but I'm eager to speak with you about it. Yeah. Reny case, when I came across it, was one that on the surface, you know, I initially wasn't asking very many questions or
not a lot of things sprung into my head. But the more I thought about it with the information we do have, what little we do have, I started to really. develop more and more questions surrounding his disappearance. Yeah, with you saying that, I kind of just want to jump right in here. After, you know, he was last seen at 7 p .m. and the following morning around 11, or within that time frame in the morning when they were finding his clothes, that's the first thing I wanted to discuss.
And just ask, what do you make of that? Yeah, the finding the clothes on the beach. So that's the first set of clothing that's found. It's his pajama pants and his socks, according to his mother. That's what was found on the beach. And from what we know, cleaning crews do come through at 6 a .m. and, you know, remove everything from the beach before the day really gets started. So it is. the understanding that those would likely have been thrown out had they been there
at 6 a .m. So they needed to show up after 6 a .m. but before 11 a .m. because 11 a .m. is when his friends call police. So they would have found the clothes just a little bit before that, I imagine. I'm so glad I asked the question because I knew you would have a different perspective
from mine. And that was something that I... didn't include or even think of was that the cleaning crew you know could have picked them up and tossed them but what I thought and I think because you know this is a missing person's case and we have a lens over it to me it read as oh that's someone trying to cover something up because normally you wouldn't throw your own clothes away that is kind of a nonsensical action to me But yeah,
that's kind of what I thought. While the first set of clothes were found hanging on a railing near the beach, the second set of clothes were found in a trash can at the house, and that was found by police. Thank you for reminding me and our listeners that there were two different spots where clothing was found. You know, the first one, With the clothing hanging there, to me that read as someone passed by the clothing. And I've
done this in our neighborhood before. If I see a glove or something that it looks like someone has lost it or left it, I'll usually hang it on a neighboring fence or somewhere where it can be safe and noticeable if the person wants to come back to find it. But the second one, which I just spoke of, Now knowing that there, you know, there was a cleaning crew there, that does make sense to me. But without that, it seems like an action that someone would do to cover
something up. Sorry, the cleaning crew cleans the beach. So they go through and clean the beach. So the thought is that his clothes weren't hanging on the rail at 6 a .m. Otherwise, they would have been thrown out. So those would have had to appear after 6 a .m. But before 11 a .m. OK, thank you for clarifying. I'm I'm laughing because I'm laughing at myself. You know, as Ali is telling the timeline of these cases, I'm trying to keep
up with her and remember everything. So sometimes the details get a little lost in the shuffle for me. But that's probably true for our listeners. So hopefully when I do ask questions, it's helpful for you all as well. Another question I kind of had about the clothing found on the railing specifically, that was the sleeping pants and socks, according to his mother. That's what was found on the railing. It's never mentioned what clothing he was last seen in the night before
at 7 p .m. So was he in his sleeping pants and socks, like getting ready to have an early night or just hang out? You know, his day clothes, whatever. And then that would indicate that he at least went into his suitcase and got his sleeping pants if he put that there. So that's a question I have with that specifically. The discovery or finding of the socks and the pajamas kind of made me think that maybe he did end up in
the water. I know this is a broad question and we'll continue to ask more questions, but I'm curious to know if you think that he drowned, which is kind of the overall theory. And I wanted to know how you felt about that. I think it's definitely a possibility in the world of possibilities. I think it is something that could have happened.
Something that comes up for me and I know kind of comes up for the family as well, while it doesn't surprise me necessarily hearing about a college student taking LSD on spring break, what does kind of surprise me is that, to my knowledge, none of the other students in the house said that they were also doing drugs that night. That's kind of a strange part to me is
that Reny would be doing it by himself. So I wonder if somebody else was doing it and they didn't find any drugs in the house when police did search. So then, like, if Reny was doing it by himself, so he only had just that one dose or there's just some questions about it. If other people were doing drugs with him, which, again, like, isn't crazy for college students on spring break, I would hope that they would tell police, like, at least what was happening and even, like,
have the drugs tested. Like, was Reny taking LSD or thinking he was taking LSD but took something else that... maybe had a adverse effect with him. Like there's a lot of possibilities where maybe it was just LSD and it hit him weird. I think it is something that could have happened, but there's still a lot of questions around it and lacking evidence to support it. Thank you for expanding on everything that you thought. It kind of takes us into my remaining questions
as you were unfolding them. timeline for us. Directly after I was writing questions about, I wonder, you know, if it was drowning, I quickly pivoted to, all I wrote was, did something happen with the kids? Because as it started to unfold, and just like you, it took me a second to ask more questions, you know, within myself. About the kids, about the people that were around him as this happened. And I think the lack of information is odd. And the kids' behaviors when the parents
show up, odd. Yeah, you know, I think the other students, the other college students, like something could have just gotten out of hand. you know, like partying too much, drinking too much, and then something happens. And I try to leave like, you know, some grace too, because I think if I was 21 and had gone on a spring break trip and somebody went missing, I might freak out and panic and leave too, just because I was scared
that something might happen to me. You know, I'm not somewhere where I... no, I don't know anybody there. So I might just try to like get out of there to feel safe. But then on the other hand, you know, I can't imagine leaving a friend behind that I came there with. Like that feels really unimaginable to me and to not be, you know, banging a drum, trying to get attention and get a search going for them and get them
home. So it's very confusing, the behavior. But I would love to know, like, The statements of everybody there and just is there any clue that was missed in the timeline? Because it doesn't seem like one police agency has ever interviewed all of the spring breakers. So like if one person did all the interviewing, could they find something that multiple police departments missed? Just some of the other questions that, you know, if I could sit down and get any question I had answered,
I would be curious. Did his cell phone reveal any information? We know this was found either in the trash or next to the trash at the rental home. You know, was he texting anybody? Was he texting dealers to get drugs? Was there any GPS on it? Anything to show what he had been up to? Or maybe even when he and his phone became separated? Is there any indication of when that happened? And then... I also got curious just if any of his clothing was missing, if they were able to
determine that at all. But was there any outfit missing that he could have possibly been wearing when he vanished? We know clothing was found in the beach and in the trash can, but was all of his clothing accounted for otherwise? Or, you know, is there a certain kind of shirt? Were his swimsuit missing? Or his, you know, was anything else missing? That's something I would want to know. I think it's important to mention his family
here and his parents more specifically. And I'm so grateful that you covered just a little bit of their navigating what a, I mean, to put it lightly, like just horrifying mess this must be to have to. Go to somewhere where you don't know to try to find your loved one, your child. Worst case scenario, worst nightmare. Reny’s case is one that, unfortunately, we have seen before where someone goes missing during specifically
a spring break trip. And that's terrifying because it's supposed to be a space for young people to... have fun and cut loose and, like, be in community. So I'm really, I'm glad that we learned that his parents did everything they could and continue to. And I just wanted to mention the, and I know you know this, Allie, but just the cost of, like, hiring a PI and having to search for your loved one in this way, the toll it takes on your life. Forever is, you know, gigantic.
And when you speak about them in the unfolding of the case, you know, usually we only have time to cover just a small amount of it. But I think it's important to mention that these people, not only after losing a part of their hearts or if a part of their hearts is lost, they are... They are drained in every other way. My heart really goes out to them, and I have a lot of hope for this case, specifically because there are witnesses, they're still alive, and it happened
so recently. And Reny deserves to come home. I, too, have hopes for this case, that we can get answers, that we can bring Reny home to his family who, yeah, everything you said. was perfect. They have worked tirelessly on this case and have dedicated their lives. His family really cares about him and wants him to come
home. I think that there is still information that can be gleaned in this investigation and not even nefarious information necessarily, but just like more details where we can really fill in, you know, minute to minute what happened. I think that is possible in this case, and I really hope we get it so that way Reny’s family has the answers and we get to bring Reny home.
But again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Reny Jose or his whereabouts today, please call the Bay County Sheriff's Office at 850 -747 -4700. As always, I will be providing the graphics
for our case this week. Reny and what he looks like and hopefully on your own social medias you can share or share that you're listening to the podcast you can find us on instagram at cold and missing and we would love it if you took a second today tomorrow or sometime this week to leave us a rate and review in your podcast app that would mean so much to us We're getting very close to breaking 100 on Spotify and 100 in Apple Podcasts. So it'd be so cool to kind
of break that. So if you have some time, we sure would appreciate it. And if you or someone you love needs a transcript to follow along to the podcast because you are hard of hearing, you can find that on our website, www .coldandmissing .com, where we have our official transcripts that is edited by me. So it has correct spellings of names. and all that jazz. So that's on the website. And you can also find all our old episodes there as well. But that's all I have for you
this week. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Allie. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all.