Episode 5: “The Strangest Thing”

Pushkin last time on weds Dear.

Dia was well aware of my past.

We discussed that in full detail not long before we started dating.

You can pretty much just take out a sharpiet and just cross out every yearn thing he says Lake literally, he just he's allergic to the truth.

He is not a man that takes no. He does not accept no. Have any one of the parties, Damn or me, the kids or me was found guilty of her get appearance or had anything to do, whether disappearance or dead, we would get nothing.

One thing that's been bothering me throughout my reporting is my struggle to find an objective voice. I trained at a very traditional journalism school. Our professors drummed into us the importance of being objective, unbiased, of stating the facts. Almost everyone I've spoken to has some kind of agenda. Okay, maybe not Peggy, dear sister, but everyone else has been smeared with accusations or cloaked in suspicion. I was getting

I would text her whenever I would hear gunshots or screams over there, and I said, Dia uk, and She's like, yeah, it was a coyote. Oh it was a rattlesnake or you know, things like that. That's what I would do.

Carmen runs a Christian youth camp just down the road from Beneatha Vista, DIA's ranch. She wouldn't go as far as calling herself a friend of DEA's. She'd heard Dea had a temper, so she tried to keep her distance.

And so that's why I always had a healthy sense of boundaries with her, because I'm like, you know, I care about your dogs, I care about your animals, I care about you. But we're you know, I wasn't like friends with her like per se.

Carmen remembers the last time she spoke to Dea. It was about two weeks before Dia disappeared. She says Dea was extremely upset about something Clinton and Chrissara had done.

She was crying. You know what happens. We hold them in her arms and all of a sudden they turn on us. They want everything, Karma, they want everything. And I thought, okay, Dia, I know how you are. You know you're kind of dramatic as well. You know, I'm thinking in my mind, what have you done?

It wasn't the first time Dea had complained about her kids, but Carmen says she tended to exaggerate, so.

I kind of took everything she said with the assault because I knew she was dramatic. I thought, Okay, let's let's let's find out what's truth is about.

Regardless of what Carmen thought of Dea, when she heard her neighbor was missing, she gathered her staff and leapt into action.

So you know, I am a Christian and we're a Christian camp, and so I care about people, even if they're not nice.

Carmen was the perfect person for this kind of job.

For our summer camp, we have to practice drills for fires and also for missing camp or drill we say in case somebody, we can't find somebody, and we time ourselves and we do searches in every building. I mean, so we kind of know how to do searches for people who are missing.

Right.

Carmen told me her version of what happened the weekend Dea went missing, and it felt like a breath of fresh air because finally I had an impartial version of events. Finally, I felt like I was holding a piece of the truth.

We honestly got Okay, she probably went hiking and just injured herself. That was the main you know, that's what we've done. We're gonna go find her. We will find her.

I'm Lucy Sheriff, and this is Where's Dea Episode five. The strangest thing when Carmen and her staff showed up to Benita Vista Ranch on that Sunday in twenty twenty, the day after Dia disappeared, they expected to be greeted with open arms, but that's not exactly what happened.

It was the strangest thing. You know, you would think Harper would have said, hey, thank you for coming. It was almost like we were like in the way kind of thing. It didn't feel like that we were.

Welcome, regardless of the chilly welcome. Carmen got straight to work.

We got a megaphone from our camp, We got all kinds of tools from our camp just to take with us, and I was using it to yell out for Dia basically, and a lot of people were out there, and at one point I became very frustrated. Because I thought, well, what's going on? And then I, you know, I'm feeling like we're just there's no direction to this right.

At some point, Carmen called a friend of hers who worked at the Sheriff's department.

I stood on a rap because there's no signal, and I say, hey, why aren't you here? Said Carman, we can't be out there till tomorrow. Anyways, you know it's forty eight hours.

Oh yeah, that forty eight hour thing. Again, it's funny that someone who works at the Sheriff's department would say that, because Riverside's own standards manual specifically says the officers shouldn't wait before acting on a missing person's report. They're supposed to begin investigations right away. I did reach out to the Sheriff's department to ask them about this discrepancy and many other things, but I did not get any response. Back to Carmen's phone call, she told her friend she

They said, I have all kinds of red flags going on, then, just all kinds of warms going off in my head. I said, there's something not right, I said, and I said, I'm usually right about these things.

There was also something else, calm and.

Noticed he's writing around on acquad with this woman who I don't know who she is, which is Diane Fetter. To me, it looked like there was something going on between them.

Clinton has mentioned this to me too, that he and his private investigator thought Diana Fedder, DIA's friend may have been romantically involved with Harper, to be very clear, though Harper and Diana both deny this. Eventually, one of Carmen and DEA's neighbors mentioned something incredibly useful. The ranch was covered in security cameras.

And she was like, there's not a place here that Dia has not wired with a camera. She was like, and I know that because I just thought the other day I was feeding the animals, and she was like, she would talk to me through the cameras. She said, so there's got to be something that shows us what happened yesterday.

And because common is common, she sent him one of her IT guys to check them out.

So he went inside and he couldn't get it to come up in the server to turn on. He couldn't get it to boot up. Basically, he thought that somebody had tempered with it and had damaged it so they couldn't wow, you know, he said, something happened here. I don't feel comfortable going back in there by myself. I feel like I'm at a crime scene and I'm putting my fingerprints all over the place.

Another member of Common's group went to search the meadow. She told Common what she saw. Ruby DEA's faithful dog had followed her and went straight up to a patch of fresh dirt.

She said, a dog laid down right there on the fresh shirt. We turned around and he didn't want to leave. It's almost like it was like maybe she was there, she said, the dog but did not want to leave. We finally kind of coaxed her back and got her to go back with us.

When Carmen and her staff got back from being out in the heat, they wanted to make sure to check every building on the property before they left. There was one last place Carmen wanted to search, Harper's white Ford motor home.

I said, I just need to have everybody because I kind of wanted to take over at that point and said, well, somebody needs to go and look, and then they came back and they said what.

And so nobody offered a key. Nobody no.

And that's the thing I was like, that's when I started just getting Really that was a Sunday when we were all just like, you know, this does not feel good. We were just that was just like the final confirmation we just need to wait for the cops to get here kind of thing.

You know.

The consensus was among my staff it was, look, I think we just got called over to put all kinds of footprints everywhere and to just damage the crime scene. Basically. That's how we felt at that moment. And so we laughed. And that was the final thing that just stuck in my head. Why couldn't we get into that motor home.

Calm and return the next day on the Monday with homemade missing person's leaflets in hand? But by then Harper and his motor home were gone. He was on his way to New Mexico.

And I'm like, why would you lead?

So this is your girlfriend. You're supposedly distraught about her, right I would be. I was distraught even if and I wasn't that post idea. You know, I'm thinking, how can I be more upset about this than you. You know, how is this that?

This is?

That is not right? How did he just take off?

That weekend of searching, Carmen kept tabs on the ranch. Diana and Harper held DEA's power of attorney, although nobody else seemed to know this yet. When the cops had finished their search, they turned over the ranch keys to DEA's children, who locked the gate. But one night, soon after the search, Carmen noticed a car heading up the road towards Benita Vista Ranch.

So I saw Kara go over there, and I went over there is excuse me, what are you doing?

To calm and surprise it was Diana Fedder.

That's the one time that I thought, oh my goodness, what the heck is this woman doing here. I don't think anybody, I said, I don't think anybody's supposed to be over here. Said nobody's supposed to be here. She was like, I just I just can't get a few things from the truck, something for the animals.

Carmen had called the Sheriff's department as soon as she'd seen the car, and when an officer showed up, she went back home. Carmen brought up so many things, but there was one thing she mentioned that to this day still stands out to me. She told me what Harper said he'd been doing during the window of time Deer went missing.

So the story of what he was doing on Saturday kept changing. When we were there that day on Sunday to SERGEI said he had been burying brush in the meadow, like burying brush, what the heck? And then later on he changed his story too, I was mowing the meadow.

This, by the way, is Harper's only alibi that he was out mowing the meadow. Speaking with Carmen brought me back to the immediate aftermath of Deer's disappearance. I felt like I was seeing those crucial first days in a new light. But my conversation with her also raised a lot of questions about Harper and Diana. More on that after the break, I found a whole story about Diana Fedder taking stuff out of Deer's truck. So bizarre it was at night, the ranch had been locked shut, and

Let's see, so the Sheriff's department ended their thing on Wednesday, because that's today.

I went back to get the canned dog food for Ruby.

Ruby, remember is DEAs doc who had gone with Harper on his trip to New Mexico. Also, he didn't take Ruby.

In the end, he did, but he didn't have the proper food. And I was you know, I wasn't aware of the proper food that she was supposed to be being fed.

And they said, well, she always kept cans in her truck.

So I went back to go get the cans to figure out what kind of medicated food she was eating.

This interview happened early on in my reporting, before I knew about all the weird twists and turns. But after I spoke with Carmen, I felt I had to call Diana back.

I wanted to run through some more of these questions. So I've spoken to Carmen and I just wanted to run Oh was that the neighbor?

Yes?

Yeah.

This time Dana gave me a more detailed account about the night she went to DIA's truck. She told me she went to the ranch with a friend. I mentioned finding the dog food again along with something else.

And I told this to the police. Offer Ellie went to the truck and the windows were down. We opened the door, the alarm went off, and we grabbed two balls, thigh balls, a leash, uh, some tand of food from the car. And on the flank feet was a scape like the up a lock bop mm hmm. And when I when I opened it, there was a gun in there.

Oh.

I'm like, okay, why is there a lock box on the front feet with a gun? And why did the police not take it with them? So I leave my friend and we go out fine, and I guess that was Carmen and her husband. They were walking their dog or walking and they should well we heard a lot, so yeah, we needed to get dog food, so Ruby and we showed them everything, and then I locked up the weapon and then told the police about it.

So to recap Diana found one of these guns India's truck Ondia's ranch, which by that point I'm guessing was a potential crime scene, and she took it. Diana said it was for safety reasons, so why didn't.

I did not feel un comfortable a loaded weapon sitting in the front seat of my friend's vehicle with the windows there on property where nobody is staying. You know that anybody could come on. I'm like, no, no, no, no, So what.

Happened to it?

Oh?

For the weapon?

Yeah, I told the police about it, and then Hartwork said that he wanted the weapon and I said it fine in my faith, and he goes, no, I want to keep all of thea's property on the property. And I'm like, okay, well, what can I say?

Now?

I can't tell him. I'm not going to give it to him. I mean, because now you know, technically he's in charge. So I let the police know that I had to give him the weapon.

By many accounts, dear did own a lot of guns. I tried to find out what happened to that one. Harper says he doesn't have it anymore, and the police didn't respond to my questions about it. In general, Diana disputed a lot of what Carmen told me, particularly about her and Harper.

Harper and I have never been in a relationship. I met him. I think it's been twice before Dia disappeared. Yeah, he's just a Yeah.

While I had Diana on the phone, I wanted to ask her about some of Clinton's allegations. He believes that Diana had something to do with Dear's disappearance and that she was working with Harper. He's been pretty adamant to me that you're involved somehow.

Yeah, he's told the police that, and he's told everybody else. Just because you happened to be asked by a friend to help them, there is state or what have you when you ask, does not automatically make you the bad guy.

Diana denied having anything to do with Dear's disappearance.

I mean, I can understand, you know, like if something happened to somebody's spouse, the person they could look to is the other spouse, you know, and I can understand why they would consider it at first. But there's no gain, Yeah, none at all, you know, I mean the I mean there's no money, there's.

Nothing, Diana said. There's no value in DEA's trust. Dear was so in debt. Diana said that her estate is pretty much worthless. This is hard for me to verify because the legal guardian of Deer's estate won't tell me anything about DEA's financial situation. But according to court records, Deer's estate could be worth millions regardless. A couple of years ago, Diana withdrew as DEA's trustee anyway, giving up

It was searched twice. It was searched on.

Uh Sunday, and it was searched again on Monday before he departed in it.

But there was nothing in it, nothing that way to concern.

And then she told me this, The only thing.

That conswer was the r V was parked in the field, in the horse field, okay, and Harper had told the police that he was mowing the field.

When she supposedly disappeared. Yeah, and he could look because it was up to their knees.

So first Carmen tells me howp had changed his alibi from burying brush in the meadow to mowing it. And then Diana tells me that the grass was definitely not moan. That's really interesting about the meadow.

That's pretty good, great, And he apparently was out there for hours mowing the meadow. Well, I can tell you right now that the amount of time that he said he's spent in the meadow mowing, it's in collect m He said he was out there for almost six hours. There's no way in heck he could have been out there for six hours unless you took an OAP.

I couldn't help wondering where were the police in all of this? Have they checked out Harper's alibi? I don't know if they did, But what I did learn is that Harper wasn't exactly concerned about alibis, because it turns out he claims he's known all along exactly what happened to Dia, and he'd seen it all unfold on the security camera's tapes. We'll be right back. In May twenty twenty three, around Memorial Day, three people broke into Benita

I'm stuck. I'm stuck with what we do once we find her. You know, obviously, you know, in my opinion, they've always known it was a murder because the video shows that. And why they the video that was here at the lange that was taken. Oh, well, I.

Don't know anything about that video.

What video is that? Yeah, we had surveillance on the area in which she was assaulted.

Basically, this man, who I've been speaking to for three years by this point, is suddenly telling me about a security camera which captured Dea being kidnapped. And he's never ever mentioned this before. In fact, he told me this in twenty twenty one.

I always believe that she was going to a safe song, so I always felt that she laughed that. I always felt that she would contact me and let me know that she was fine. The contact never comes.

That same year, right before I was thinking of visiting the ranch, Harper told me something else. He told me the security cameras hadn't captured anything.

Yeah, you know what, I'll take you upstairs and show you the cameras.

How how they do not see what happens is beyond.

Me and lie.

And when he finally does mention the videotapes to me all those years later, he describes in detail what he watched on this footage. He launches into this wild chronicle about dear being kidnapped.

It takes place between the main house and what we call the cabin, which is across the street from the main house. They surround her as she's coming. They do not cause they do not communicate. They just surround her and that's where the big guy halts off and hits her to the side of the white cheek.

He tells me that Deer's attorney called him after Deer went missing and told him to watch the security camera footage. I tried to double chat this with Deer's attorney, but in the middle of all of this he died so I couldn't. Harper also tells me the detective Alberta. Lerero of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department has seen the footage too.

He's been asked if who they were and why they haven't been identified. He claims that the video is not clear enough to do facial recognition on it.

But have you seen have you actually physically seen this video, Yes you have, and when did you watch it?

When we were doing the actual search for her, her attorney called then asked me to watch it, and then after I had given it, he said, you know, just he said, he said, you know, I should have taken a copy. I didn't.

So, just to recap, I've been speaking to Harper for years by this point, and it's only after that Memorial Day Burglary happens that he brings up these videotapes. He told me that the people who burgled the ranch in twenty twenty three were the same people he watched on video kidnapping Dea in twenty twenty.

There were three burglars that can they as saying description of those who killed her almost identical in height, weight and size.

It was hard to reconcile all of this with what Carmen told me. According to her, her it guy couldn't access the security footage on Deer's ranch. He said someone had tampered with it. Detective Lrero also told me that no such tape exists. There was one more strange aspect about Harper's new theory. It lined up with information from some of Kelly Snyder's psychics, who work with his Missing Persons organization. They said that three people, two men and

They were all saying the same thing independently, which was that she was murdered. She was murdered by three people, two males and a female. She was taken and you know, killed and buried and basically that was it.

So is Harper just taking what Kelly's psychics said happened and sort of mishmashing it with the people who burgled the ranch. It wouldn't be the first time that he treated the psychic's information as hard fact. Ultimately, Harper believes that the three people in the footage are part of a drug trafficking motorcycle gang and that they're heavily involved in DEA's death. Oh and that Clinton hired them. I couldn't help, but wonder is Harper simply making all of

I said, I said rushing or mowing.

And people have said that the meadow wasn't moaned, that the grass was long.

Well, the meadal the medal, which you got to realize, is where the horses go out and feast. That is approximately five acres. The meadow goes on for probably a mile and a half. So did I mow all of the medal?

No?

I mow what we use and what is planted in grass, not what is brush.

There's no way I'll ever know if the meadow was moan or not. But in any case, Harper is adamant that at some point Deer's body will be found.

Once we find, for I think without question we will. Then we need to address the issue with the Sheriff's department of why Clinton Abrams was never interviewed or interrogated. He becomes the main suspect in all of our investigations.

Clinton says that the Riverside Sheriff's Department has questioned him and he's actually spent the past few years deep in an investigation of his own. He's taken all of his interviews and tape recordings and documents and finessed his theory of what he believes happened to his mother. The deer was taken and killed by a gang coming next time. On the season finale of Where's Dia.

It's an emotional Katrina.

You know it came in.

It washed everything out? Okay?

Was that? Was that a location of where the body was?

There was a location of something I do I don't need to hear.

Well, I need to hear more specific.

Do we have a location where we believe that she is.

I think there is a deal amongst multiple people to split the spoils of war, so to speak.

Neighbors will look up early Sunday morning to the sound of a Sheriff's helicopter flying over Dia Abrams Ranch near Idlewild.

Where's Dear is written and hosted by me Lucy Sheriff. Our producer is Daphne Chen, editing by Karen Shakerji, Production assistance from Joey Fish, ground fact checking by Lauren Vespoli. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Original score, sound design and mastering by Echo Shaw's Where's Dea is a co production of Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia.

Where's

Dea was originally developed with Truly*Adventurous.