On October two fifteen, the Little Rock Police Department searched an abandoned car in a small residential part. The keys were in the ignition and the car was out of gas as if it had been left running. The car belonged to eighteen year old Ebbie Steppa. And then the fact that they found her makeup in her car, her phone in her car, her wallet, her keys in her car, and that right there tells me someone planned this. Ebbie
had vanished without a trace. I'm Catherine Townsend, journalist, private investigator, and host of the true crime podcast Hell and Gone, and I'm back in Arkansas trying to find out what really happened to Ebie Steppa. It seems like every one in Arkansas knows about Ebbie. They know she disappeared in two thousand fifteen, and that her body was found in a storm drain three years later. They know that there
have been multiple investigations that have led nowhere. And even though Ebbie's case has been one of the most extensively covered cold cases in Arkansas, so much of her life and what really happened to her remain a mystery. We didn't know anything that was going on with her, Where she was going. None of her friends knew any of the people she was hanging out with or where she met him. I didn't know any of the people she
was hanging out with at the time. I mean, there's a million of scenarios that played through my head every day. After all this time, no one has been ruled out or in. Everybody's on the radar. Why are they on the radar? They've been on the radar for years. I feel for these people too, because like they're not cleared, but they're not prosecute it. I didn't want to get involved, and they're saying at all I said, I don't need
to interfere with a brace part. I regret that. Now I'm falling up on old leads, chasing new leads, and doing anything that can get us closer to the truth. No one would be able to see what I was doing from the street side. If I was putting the body in here, no one would see that happen. Did she take somebody there with her? Did somebody kill her and put her down there? Did something else happen and then somebody panic they put her down there. All those
things are on the table. We're going to get close we're gonna figure out if he's home or not. We're gonna go knock on the door, and we're gonna try to just talk to him. I just started shaking. It's like this, I'm never gonna I'm never gonna win. Nothing's ever gonna happen. Some people tell me to just leave things to law enforcement. I know from experience that once you start digging up dark secrets, life can get messy
and things can get complicated. But I also know that sometimes digging is the only way to get answers and justice. From School of Humans and I Heart Radio, I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone. Listen to Helen Gone on the I Heart Radio app, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Season four is out Marche