The Phones

like maybe some criminal records, but that's about it. If he didn't have any of that, you know, as a as a kid, you know, unless his parents like put them on like their credit card as an authorities user or something, which is not a common thing. You know, it's gonna be it's gonna be difficult trying to figure that out. Finally I found his current address. I did some like looking into Leo, and he is actually not

even a little rock. He's in this area called Hot Springs National Park, which is like a little town right next to Hot Springs. Like the thought of going around there looking for him is like not a great one, you know what I mean, it's it's going to be, it would be like going into all types of like remote areas looking for him. So I don't think I'll be door knocking on him Saturday night, the night before Ebbie talked with Eric and then Trevor is still this

giant black hole. But we do have a clear picture now than we did when we first started investigating. We know that Ebbie wasn't at Eric's, she wasn't at Danielle's, she wasn't with c she wasn't at her mom and stepdad's house or at her grandparents house. And at the time, Trevor had a roommate. She confirmed that she and Trevor went out of town for that wedding on Saturday night, so Ebbie was not supposed to stay at trevor Vers

house either. And now we've talked to one more of Ebbie's close friends who gives us even more clues about what was going on with Ebbie before she disappeared. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is hell and Gone. We've been trying to learn more about the security guard, Guy Hooper and his son Josh, even though Guy Hooper is now in his seventies and has been doing security work for a

long time, this has not been easy. Unlike in some previous cases, we've worked on law enforcement at Ebby's case, even though they haven't been able to share information due to the case being open and active, have in some cases answered questions for us. We asked them about Guy Hooper. What we were told is that he was interviewed and

that he was polygraphed and cleared. Now that may be true, but this would also not be the first time that I've heard about an air tight alibi or someone being cleared by law enforcement, only for me to discover later that this was not the case. Part of the problem is that cleared is kind of a vague term in and of itself. This is a well known problem in the United States. In most cases, even when police do not make an arrest or identify suspect, they can publicly

say that they've cleared the crime. That's actually the way they determine the national clearance rate, or the percentage of cases that are cleared versus those that are still under investigation. So clearing a suspect is an even more vague term. We put the word out on social media and on Ebbie's family's Facebook page. Find Ebbie Steppic, a Hell and Gone listener, reaches out. She gives me a link to an article that the Arkansas Democrat Gazette published back in

two thousand. It's about a nightclub in Little Rock called Planet Earth. It's closed now, but it was on Cantrell Road back in the day. In September of two thousand, Guy Hooper was working with a company called Security World. He and another Security World officer named William Sharvinka worked with the bouncers at the club. One night, they got into an altercation with a twenty two year old man named Damon Hilton. He had come to the club with

a friend. Three bouncers, Shawn Webb, Daryl Griffith, and Philip David House, along with Guy and William Sharvenka. All five of them were charged with beating Damon Hilton. Originally, they were all charged with second degree battery, which is a felony. When the trial finally happened, only Shawn Webb was found guilty, and he was found guilty of the lesser misdemeanor charge, third degree battery. The other four, including Hooper, were acquitted.

According to an article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, quote Pulaski County Deputy prosecuting Attorney Melanie Martin had argued that Webb perforated Helton's ear drum when he punched him in the left ear, and that Hooper, House and Shrevenka kicked, punched, and hit Helton with a flashlight a short time later. Ende Helton was an army ranger and during the trial, according to the newspaper, he testified that it took weeks for his ear to heal and that during that time

he was basically toned deaf. Damon said that it all started when he was at the club with a friend. At some point, the friend walked outside of the parking lot and then the bouncers refused to let his friend back in. He started trying to persuade one of the bouncers, Daryl Griffith, into letting his friend back in. Then at some point he put his hand on Darryl Griffith's arm. At that point, he said, Darrell basically turned on him,

grabbed his throat and pushed him down to the curb. Then, he said, Sean Webb approached him and punched him in the ear. That was the punch that did the most damage. He said he tried to walk away, but Guy Hooper, Philip David House, and William Sharvinka followed him. This part is extremely disturbing, and I really don't want to paraphrase it, so I'm going to read it directly from the article.

It read. Quote he said, the security guards ripped off their belts, taunting him and trying to start a fight. End quote. At that point, he testified that the security guards got him down on the ground and started beating him. He said, quote at the time, I was very threatened. I had heard about guys getting the crap kicked out of them down there, but I never thought i'd be one of them. Due at some point during this fight, another nightclub patron also threw a punch and hit Amon Hilton.

Guy Hooper, his fellow security guard, and the bouncers denied that they had ever hit Damon. They said that that other nightclub patron was the only one who threw a punch, but multiple witnesses backed up Damon Hilton's version of events,

and the club did have a reputation. The paper described the club as being known among police officers and prosecutors as being a place where bouncers regularly pick on people they are supposed to protect due Prosecuting attorney Larry Juggley told The Democrat Gazette at the time that he wanted to use the state's public nuisance laws to try to

shut that business down. That didn't end up happening, but the club was hit with a lot of bad publicity, including civil lawsuits from people claiming that they had been injured by the bouncers, including one in two thousand and two from an Oklahoma man who sued the nightclub from one point five million dollars. He claimed that he received multiple injuries after five bouncers jumped him. Eventually, Planet Earth closed, Guy Hooper moved on to another security company and eventually

onto the Channel Valley area. We'll be right back in Ebbie's case. Maybe more than any case I've ever worked on. We've had to question everything that we know, every detail of the so called official story. Cell Phone data is crucial to this case, and it also seems to be an area that has not been investigated properly and that could have been mishandled by the police. First, there was the failure to get a warrant and take the boy's

phones from Friday night. If they had gotten those phones immediately, they could have verified everyone's location during that crucial time frame when every went missing. We've also been looking for more information about Ebbie's phones in general. Remember Laurie told us Ebbie had recently swapped phone owns with a friend. That friend was Kaylee. Hello, Hey, is it Kayley? This is Hey? If pepperd towns in Hi? Did I catch

you at a bad time? No, you're good. If you hear my son though he's in bed with me, that's absolutely fine. I have a Chihuahua and you'll probably hear him throughout okay work at least sixth time. Kaylee has been interviewed by other news outlets before, but this is the first time her side of the story is being told on the record. There has been tension between Ebbie's

family and Kaylee in the past. She believes that because there was this tension between her and Ebbie's family, a lot of the information she has said publicly hasn't been used like I didn't want to do it and like my side or like would I know, not be able to be told? If that means yeah, I understand. Kaylee met Ebbie in February twenty fifteen, they worked together playtime and pizza. Even after they both quit those jobs, they

stayed friends. Ebbie got a job at foot locker at McCain Mall, and Kayley also had a new job at Big Rock Fun Park. Sometimes Ebbie would hang out with Kaylee and Kayley's co workers. After Ebbie started clashing more and more with her family, Kaylee told Ebbie that she could stay at her house. So I was like, well, you can come live with me for a little bit, Like you can come stay with me, You don't need to be in an environment like that. So I talked to my mom and she ended up staying with me

for like a few weeks. And whilst she was staying with me, she was still going to school and doing what she's supposed to. Kayley says that Ebbie started staying with her in September twenty fifteen, the month before Ebbie disappeared, and stayed for a few weeks, and the whole time

it was really good. She was asking normal like everything and was perfectularly sign she never hung out with guys that she didn't know, and if she did mention to do that, like while she was staying with me, Me and my older sister Destiny would always be like, try to tell her, like that's not safe, Like don't hang out with anyone you don't know unless someone you know is with you or people know exactly where you're at. You would never hang out with like any random guys

like that or people she didn't know. Because Ebbie compartmentalized her life and had these different friend groups, Kayley said she didn't know any of the people who were at the party on Friday. She also didn't know Leo, the guy from the photographs. Kayley did go to Shalamant Park with Ebbie. Chalamant Park is right in front of another high school called Joe T. Robinson, the one that Kaylee

and some of her friends attended. They all went there one time while Ebby was staying with Kayley sometimes, she said, in September. It was around eleven pm. So we ended up going to the park one night with two guys. I just remember one of them. But I just remember us going there one night, and that was the first time I ever been there with her, and we'd like the only time we ever went, so I didn't think

she went often. It was just like that one time, but she knew where it was, but Ebie and Kayley ended up leaving quickly. We ended up leaving because we felt uncomfortable with those guys, and Eddie called him out on it because Ebbie is the type of person that's like very blunt and she'll tell you how she feels. And the guys didn't really like it because she said that she told one of them that he seems like a pedophile or rape. Its like he's just being creepy,

and he didn't like that. So we ended up leaving and never talked to them again, and after that we never been to that park. I'm hoping that Kayley can help us figure out who these two guys are. And then Kayley told us about what had happened with phone.

She confirmed that they had switched devices. We ended up like I ended up buying her phone and I gave her my phone, like we just switched phone and sold me her iPhone six I think it was, and I let her have my five so my I guess somehow my Apple i'd was still in that phone, so anytime she took like pictures of screenshots, I would get it on my phone. The last time that Kaylie saw Ebbie was early October twenty fifteen. She ended up saying she could go stay with her dad, so it was probably

like the beginning of October. So the last time I actually got to hang out with her like that. The last time I spoke to her was that Friday before she went missing, because we made plans to hang out that Sunday. She was supposed to come back from a trip that she was going to take with one of her friends. But then after that I found out she went missing and I didn't hear from her again. Did she tell you where she was supposed to go on Saturday night? She said that that Friday she was like

me and my friend. She didn't tell me what friends, but she was like, me and my friends are going out of town on a trip, like for the weekend. But apparently it went it got canceled, so she ended up not going. But I didn't know that part. I just knew she was going out of town for the weekend. I don't remember where. Kayley does not remember exactly who Ebbie was supposed to take this trip with, but I just know she said that she was going to go out of town and then that Sunday she came back,

we said, hang out. We know that we can eliminate Kayley's house from where Ebbie was on Saturday night. So that means that whoever Ebbie was staying with wasn't any of the people who she was staying with after she left home. We'll be right back. After Ebbie went missing, Kayley said that she was worried that the police were not investigating, so one day, she and her mom decided

to go to Chamont Park themselves. Even though Detective Tommy Hudson would later say that they could not have smelled decomposition from where they were, Kayley says she will never forget what she saw and smelled that day. We've heard this story secondhand, but here it is in Kayley's own words. So after we talked to them, we went to the park and my mom walked over there. First. She instantly

with the drainage type. She was like, Kayley, no, don't come down here, like stay up there, and I was like, no, I'm comming like I want to know what's going on.

So I went down there and I smelled it too, And so my mom ended up calling the cops multiple times, probably three or four, and then they finally came out and investigated it, like they just lifted it up and was like, oh, it's sewage and called it a day, which it upset me so much because I was like, literally, like you guys could have found her two weeks after she went missing and known like exactly what happened to her. Kaylee went back to the park herself to check the

man hole. Me and my friend Lace at the time, I was like, can we go down there and see if we could go investigate that. We were what, like it was twenty fifteen, so I was like sixteen seventeen at the time, so not the smartness, but I was like, let's go see if we can go down there and see if like we can see anything, because obviously the

cops aren't taking it seriously. But even if Ebie did want to go down there, there was no way she could have fit to shimmy herself down there and that drain Like me and my friend couldn't even pick it up. It was too heavy. There's no way she could have done it herself and moved it back. So like that series, this makes no sense. And the way that the ladder was it was like on the back side, so like if she did get in there, she would have to like stretch across to the other side of the hole

to get even to the ladder thing. How would she have possibly done that? So Kaylee also does not believe that Ebbie would have gone down there herself. Whenever they told me that they found everything in her vehicle. Ebbie wasn't the type of person to leave her purse or her phone or anything like that anywhere, Like she always had to have it with her because she was always about taking pictures in videos then like all types of

stuff like that. So like whenever they said she left her phone and everything like that was a red flag to me because it wasn't that type of person to just be nons a lot and leave everything and not think about it. There's been a lot of confusion about her what she might have been on the day that she called her brother. Yes, do you know what kind of drives she may have done? She only smoked wead, And even then I tried to get her to stop, but she only smoked weed. And that's the only thing

I knew she was messing with. And she only did it with the people she was like hanging out outside of me because I wasn't a smoker, so I was like, Eavy, like, it's better if you don't do that because it can lead you like you could do something really hard, or like someone that you don't know could like lay something and like they can really hurt. Kayleie also heard about

the towel. My mom smelt it where the car was parked and the towel was leading into the drain, which we found that out the day that we found out about her car, because they said that there was like a towel leading into the drain, which that's obviously like something like why wouldn't you want to look in there? If there's a towel leading into the drain on the ground, why wouldn't you look in the drain? To begin with? It looked like a red color, and I was like, well,

we didn't have the red towel. Like Ebbie never carried around the towel, but apparently it was a towel from her brother's house, because whenever she stopped moving living with me, she ended up moving in with her dad and then apparently she moved in with her brother, and I think the towel was like the brothers, like she took it from her brother's house or something, and that's what they said, but that's a lie. I just know that it was, like the detective said, it was next to her car,

leading like into the dream. So now we know where the towel came from. It came from Ebbie's brother's house, so it must have come out of her car. Kayley says that Ebbie was planning to give her her phone back, and that the screen was cracked, so that could explain why there was a receipt for what appeared to be a page you Go phone inside Ebbie's car. If she was planning to give the iPhone five back, maybe she

bought a second phone as a backup. I asked Kaylee what happened to her phone when police first questioned her, Well after she went missing, do you remember were you still getting her pictures in your clouds? I did get like whenever I found out she was actually missing, and I had to talk to your depressive I look in like the screenshot part and whenever the last stuff I got was like, I actually have the pictures. I can look at the days I have them in my email.

She says. The last screenshot she got from that phone was something that sounds like the text exchange that we saw between Ebbie and C about the video. You don't still have the phone, do you? No, the police ever gave it back to me, Like they wouldn't give it back to me, like the phone, so they took it. They tried to take the phone that I had, and at first they were like, well, you don't need we're

not going to take the phone. Just give us everything you need, so like them everything that could possibly helped him. And then they tried to again take my phone. But the phone that was Ebby's was originally mine, like Ebby didn't pay for it, so I was supposed to get that back and they never gave that back. So I

never got that one back. But they never actually physically took mine because my parents were like, we gave you everything you went through her phone, there's nothing else, like, there's no reason for you to keep her phone if she's cooperating and gave you everything that you guys asked for. So they never actually took it. But I ended up trading that in because it's been years, so I ended

up getting a new phone. I think of twenty seventeen and I haven't had that phone since Detective Bruce Maxwell has said that he's looked through Ebbie's phone all six thousand photos that are on there. But I wonder if there could be anything still in the cloud, still in Kaylee's phone that could help us. She says she's going to give us her eye cloud log in. So now we're going to touch base with Mike and go through everything that Kaylee has. Like so many among investigations, you

reach a point where it's a waiting game. So I'm playing phone tag with sources or just waiting until a source changes their mind and wants to talk. And instead of reporting any more second or third hand stories, we're trying our best to get to the source of all these rumors. There's another source who's done a lot of investigating to Ebby's death, and she just told me Ebbie's body might not have been found in the way the police reported it. I'm Katherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone.

Helen Gone is a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. It's written and hosted by me Katherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts and Mike doubt Our executive producers or Brandon Barr, Elsie Crowley, and Virginia Prescott. Mix and Master is by Ryan Peoples and our music is by Ben Sale. If you have any information regarding Ebbie's case, please call our tipline at six seven eight six three two six one five nine School of Humans. School of Humans