Our card this week is Georgia Smith, the 8 of hearts from Minnesota. In 1999, 76-year-old Georgia had plans to spend the fourth of July with her family at her Lakeside cabin, one stayed over in Wisconsin. But a few days before they were all set to leave, Georgia said that she needed to go there early on her own. When her family eventually showed up to celebrate, they quickly realized that this holiday wouldn't be anything like they planned. I'm Ashley flowers, and this is The Deck. When Brent, Kim, and Kari all arrived to their mom's cabin in Minong, Wisconsin, they were expecting to find some sign that their mom, Georgia, was there. Maybe the smell of barbecue on the grill, some decoration set up for the next day's fourth of July festivities, or at least some indication that she'd been working in the yard that week, as she usually did. But the blinds in the windows were closed, and her 1984 Blue Mercedes sedan wasn't in the driveway. At first, her adult children weren't that worried. Yes, she hadn't been answering her phone, but that wasn't too concerning, considering she didn't always respond right away, and she was known to unplug her landline at the cabin when she didn't want to be bothered.

It was only the afternoon on July third, after all. Maybe she'd just gone to run an errand or pick up something that she'd forgotten for their fourth of July get together the next day. But the more they thought about it and the longer they waited, the less likely that seemed because she knew that her family was planning on coming to the cabin that weekend. Feeling a sense of unease, they walked over to the neighbor's house, probably hoping he'd be able to quell the feeling of worry starting to grow in the pit of their stomachs. But that's not what happened. Instead, the neighbor said something that made their hearts sink. He hadn't seen Georgia at the cabin at all that week. Kari immediately phoned his brother, Brett, who hadn't arrived at the cabin yet either, to let him know what the neighbor had told them. You see, Georgia had been staying with Brett and his wife, Debbie, on and off for the last decade since her husband passed away. And over the past four years or so, she had been spending about two-thirds of her time at their place in Champlin, Minnesota, and the other third out of the family's cabin in Wisconsin.

Kerry knew Georgia would have been staying with Brett before leaving for the cabin. Maybe she was even still there with them. So he was hoping to call Brett and settle all of their nerves. But again, that's not what happened. Brett told Kari that their mom had already left for the cabin three nights ago, so she should be there. The family wasted no time, and they reported Georgia missing in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. At around 4:30 that afternoon, Kari called the Sheriff's office over in Washburn County, Wisconsin, where Georgia's cabin was located. And back home, Brett phoned police in Champlin, Minnesota. Now, based on the fact that the last confirmed sighting of Georgia was leaving Brett's house, the Champlin police were the ones who ultimately took on the missing person's case. Brett told police that the last day with Georgia, Wednesday, June 30th, had been pretty typical. He owned this business where he sold concrete water fountains for yard decor and landscaping, and he and his wife, Debbie, and his mom had all spent most of the day working at the store. Even though Georgia was technically retired, she still liked to help out where she could by setting up appointments, talking to customers, and giving them quotes.

Brett said all three of them worked a few hours that morning, then went out to lunch together at around 12:00 or 1:00 in the afternoon, and then returned back to the shop to work several more hours before wrapping up for the day. Everything seemed normal until, out of the blue, Georgia became adamant about heading to her cabin that night. Now, going to her cabin wasn't weird. Like I said, she spent a third of her time up there. What was weird was the timing. The entire family, Georgia, her seven kids, and some of her grandkids, planned to spend the fourth of July holiday at the cabin. Brett, Debbie, and Georgia were planning on all riding up there together that week. But rather than wait, Georgia insisted that she had to run an errand. She had to go that night, and then she would come back and still go up with them as planned. In her statement, Debbie, Brett's wife, even went as far as to describe Georgia as agitated as she told them why she had to go right then. Here's Investigator Justin Michael, who's working Georgia's case today.

One of the big things was that Georgia was very concerned about her property taxes. She thought she had to pay them at that time. They were not actually due until July 31st, I believe. So she wanted to leave, to go up there early, to pay the property taxes.

Sometimes Georgia got like this, worked up over little things. Making the nearly three and a half hour one-way trip by herself on backroads just to come back and do it all over again later that week didn't make sense to Brett. But in the summer, it was light longer, and it's a trip that his mom had made many times before, so he wasn't going to fight her on this one. Although after she left, she didn't actually get very far.

She was adamant. She had to leave. So she left Champlin at, I think, around 6:00 in the evening. She got about maybe 10 minutes north of here and decided to turn back around because she thought she forgot her property tax statement. So she'd bring that to the county or whatever and say, Here's my property ID and pay the taxes.

Brett did make one more plea with Georgia when she returned to just stay and wait till they all could go up together. But Again, she insisted on going that night. Before she took off, Brett asked her to make one concession if she was going to leave to avoid one specific area that he thought could be dangerous. Oh, and call him when she arrived safely.

She left probably about 6:30, I think, again. Brett had told her, Don't go to this gas station area. You'd have to cross the highway to get there. I don't want you taking that extra risk. That was the last time that anyone had seen her or talked to her.

They didn't get a call from Georgia as expected that night. Brett said he tried calling her several times leading up to that Saturday before he learned from Carrie that she wasn't home. But again, it wasn't that weird that he couldn't get in touch with her. Remember, he just assumed her phone wasn't on, and she didn't always keep him updated about her plans and came and went as she pleased. I mean, she was their mother, an adult herself. Now, it was a little strange that she left her overnight back behind on her bed. Back on Wednesday, that had signaled to Brett that she probably planned on coming back at some point before they all went up for the fourth of July. But maybe she just decided to stay there, he thought. And she wouldn't have necessarily needed her suitcase anyways, as she kept some of her things at her cabin again since she stayed there so much.

They weren't overly concerned about her whereabouts because she transported back and forth between Mining and Champlin quite often. She just came and went like a seed on the wind type of thing where she was very independent.

From what Brett was telling police, it seemed unlikely that Georgia ever even made it to the cabin. So police decided to start their investigation at Brett's and then work their way out. They started by canvassing their neighborhood, chatting anyone who may have seen anything that night Georgia set off. There were a few neighbors that confirmed Brett's story, stating that they saw Georgia and Brett talking in the driveway at around 6:30 PM before she left. They noted that the exchange appeared to be normal and that the two didn't seem to be even arguing or anything like that. While police were boots on the ground over in Minnesota, back at George's cabin, some of her kids had started going through her things in search of any clues as to where she could be. And that is when they made a concerning discovery. To their surprise, they found some credit card statements and bills from Publishers Clearinghouse, a catalog subscription Georgia had been using to shop for all kinds of merchandise. They hadn't known that their mom was struggling financially, but the unpaid statements said otherwise. They also came across checks that had been made out to their brother Brett, who was He was known in the family to be bad with money.

When detectives pulled Georgia's bank information, her credit report confirmed her children's suspicions. She was about $24,000 in debt at the time of her disappearance, and her accounts hadn't been touched since the day she left her son's place. According to Investigator Michael, those checks she wrote Brett weren't for any huge sums of money. They were small bailouts, if you will, part of a pattern that Brett's sibling said that he had. He would sometimes come into a sizable sum of cash from sales being up at his business, but then he'd burn through it quickly and go right back to struggling to upkeep his lifestyle. Brett didn't deny it, even admitting that he had filed bankruptcy several years back, but he described his relationship with his mom as equitable. Yes, she would sometimes write him checks, pay for things, or help him out with the inventory for his business. But just as often, Brett said he would take care of her and pay for things as well, including international trips that he, his wife, and his mom would take together. He also said he would give her cash for gas and food. In fact, he said he did that the very night she went missing, though exactly how much he gave her changed a little from one interview to the next.

Obviously, he was asked many times what they discussed, and his last interaction with her was heavily discussed, and he varied that time saying, I gave her $50 for cash. He liked to always say, I took care of my mom type of thing. I made sure she had cash for gas and for food because at that time, the last time they had eaten was that lunch. So he thought that for sure she'd be stopping for gas, and she'd probably be stopping for food as well. So he at one point said, I gave her 50 bucks. Another time, I think he said, Give her a couple of hundred bucks. It just varied a little bit.

Fifty bucks, a couple of hundred bucks. It was a weird inconsistency, and investigators couldn't say for sure what it meant. I mean, detectives knew full well how strapped finances could lead someone to kill, and so they wondered if Brett could have been taking advantage of his mother in any way when it came to money. But here's the thing. Looking back at the case files, in hindsight, Investigator Michael mentioned that he didn't think Brett would have had much to gain from harming Georgia. For instance, he was pretty sure she didn't have a life insurance policy that would go to him. He thinks Georgia's estate, including the cabin, was split amongst her seven children, which didn't end up adding up to anything significant. Now, he had helped her settle a life insurance policy from his late father for somewhere around $10,000. But most of that money had been put in a new bank account for Georgia to use, a bank account that Brett helped set up. I did say most, not all, because the rest of it was put towards one of those vacations that Brett mentioned that he, his wife, and Georgia would take together. And in fact, he, his wife, and Georgia were actually planning another big trip to Europe around the time of her disappearance.

They hadn't traveled for a little while because Georgia was recovering from a heart attack. But since she appeared to be doing much better, another adventure was in the works. Though it was unclear who would be funding that vacation since neither of them were in a good place with their finances, which in turn made some of Brett's siblings suspicious. All this talk about money wasn't a smoking gun by any means. And with no solid evidence Georgia had been the victim of foul play, investigators had to consider all other scenarios. When looking at her history, they found that she wasn't in picture perfect health. For one, her daughters had raised concerns when she'd forgotten directions on a few occasions. And while Investigator Michael told us that he didn't think Georgia was ever formally diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's, her memory was a concern for some of her children. And like I said, she had also suffered a heart attack last year, and she had allegedly stopped taking her prescription medication several months prior to her disappearance. Maybe because of this or some other health issue, Investigator Michael told us that Georgia had previously had some type of medical restriction on her Minnesota driver's license.

But Brett had actually helped her cheat the system a little bit by assisting her with obtaining her Wisconsin driver's license, which had no restrictions. While her other kids, particularly her daughters, didn't love the idea of Georgia driving such long distances due to her medical concerns and mental wherewithal, Brett still seemed to support her unwavering independence, which in turn caused even more tension amongst some of the siblings who already hadn't been getting along that well prior to Georgia going missing. Brett was happy having Georgia stay with him, but his sisters wanted her to consider moving into an assisted living facility.

Brett always discredited that and said, No, she's just fine. You know what I mean? She comes and goes, whether it be eight inches of snow on the ground, she drives, that's fine.

Whatever the reason for Georgia's disappearance, her children were divided when it came to what they thought may have happened to her. A few went as far as to the finger at their own brother, Brett, thinking he could have been using his mom for money. But others assumed that her disappearance was likely due to a car accident that might have been caused by a health episode. And still others worried that a stranger may have harmed their mother in order to rob her or hijack her car. In an effort to corroborate Brett's story, police pulled his phone records and confirmed that someone had, in fact, tried calling George's cabin multiple times in the days between when she left Brett's house and when the other siblings reached the cabin and informed Brett that his mom wasn't there. Plus, the day after reporting his mom missing, he and his wife spent hours making up flyers and putting them up all along the routes that she may have taken, stopping at every gas station and market in search of her and her blue Mercedes. So looking at all the evidence they had so far, which admittedly wasn't much, law enforcement had to consider that there was a strong possibility Georgia had gotten into some accident in a rural area somewhere, or maybe gotten confused even suffered from another heart attack.

Regardless of why she was missing, investigators began trying to track Georgia down. If the accident theory was right, time was of the essence. One of the first things they did when trying to follow her movements was to see if she even made it to the government office where she was going to pay her property taxes, but she hadn't. So backtracking further, they focused their search efforts on the route that Georgia may have taken to Wisconsin that night. Now, no one was certain the exact way she may have gone, as she would often switch it up. But her family member's best guess was that she could have gone through Cambridge, Minnesota, and then Siren and Spooner, Wisconsin. Besides sites like forests or lakes, simply being on Georgia her's potential path the night she disappeared, investigators at the time had a few other qualifiers for targeting specific locations to search. Did the area have any sneaky curves that could have caused her to swerve off the road and into the woods or to the water somewhere? Was Is the area super unpopulated or remote enough where people wouldn't necessarily notice something strange right away?

There was some pretty heavy searches done right after the fact. One week after she was reported missing, the family was already out. Search parties. We had assistance from state patrol and other local agencies with helicopter searches and check and water, stuff like that, too. Edge of the road, waterways and stuff.

But during their searches, there were no obvious signs that a car had gone off the road. No tire tracks, no disturbed patches of land near any roadways.

It's certainly possible that her car could have projectiled itself into a pond or some body of water, not right on the shoreline, but far enough out where a car could be surmerged. So, yeah, this isn't land of 10,000 Lakes. There's probably close to 10,000 between here and Mai Nang.

As searches continued for Georgia over the coming days and weeks, news of her disappearance spread throughout the towns that she may have driven through. More than 60 leads were called into the Champlin Police Department, most of which were from people thinking that they may have seen a car that could have been Georgia's. Some even claimed that they had actually seen an older woman matching Georgia's description, looking lost or confused.

Pretty much every lead that came in was looked at to some degree. Most of them were discredited rather quickly as far as they're just visiting enough information to follow up on.

The first credible sighting came from a manager of a radio shack in Spooner, Wisconsin, about three weeks after Georgia went missing. Now, Spooner was only about a half an hour away from the cabin, and this employee remembered that she'd interacted with a woman matching George's description who drove the same blue Mercedes. This mystery woman had called in first and then showed up to the store in person. Here's a recreation of a portion of that interview police did with the employee. Some of it has been slightly edited for clarity.

The reason I'm here, of course, is to talk to you about the missing person from Champlin. We had information that you possibly had seen her. Since I've gotten here, I've shown you two pictures that you identified as being her. Were you able to tell from those photographs if in fact it was the lady we are looking for?

Yes.

How sure would you be that that was her?

100% sure.

I think as of last night, we were told it was second or third of July. Does that seem reasonable to you?

Yes.

It being the second of July then, when you saw her, was it morning or the afternoon?

It would have been in the afternoon, I I think 1 o'clock.

Was that your understanding that she called in about having some problems with her car radio? Yes, she did.

I don't know if she said it was her clock or whatever.

When you talked to her, did she talk rationally?

Yes, she was very rational, very pleasant, a very nice lady.

Did she mention the Miningaung area at all to you when she talked to you?

Yes.

What did she say about that?

She mentioned that she was coming from the city and that she had a place in Mining. The other important detail this manager was able to recall were the big, shiny rings the older woman had been wearing. And out of everything the manager said, this was one of the things that really solidified investigators's belief that she had spoken to Georgia. You see, she wore a lot of jewelry. In fact, her kid said that she was known to keep a bag of jewelry in her car. Now, it was a point of contention with some of the siblings saying it was worth tens of thousands of dollars and might have been a reason for someone to target her, while others said the value was more sentimental than anything. But regardless, that jewelry wasn't something someone would easily forget. So this sighting seemed particularly promising, and it did more than just give them something to work with. With this tip, word of George's disappearance made the news.

And that was one of probably the most overwhelming things is it made at least local, if not national news shortly after. And when that happens, you're going to get a flood of everyone in their brother saw her. You know what I mean? They saw that model of vehicle or that color of vehicle or a woman of that description. They saw her as far as New York or was it Mackina Island in Michigan. They saw her in North Dakota, South Dakota, traveling every which direction out of here. And there was almost so many leads flotted in that you couldn't possibly follow up on every one of them.

For about a month, investigators worked with the tip from the manager, trying to establish a more accurate timeline of Georgia's whereabouts. But all that work went the window with one call from the woman who took her car into Radio Shack, and it wasn't Georgia.

The lady who actually had brought her car in later said when she had heard this on the radio or the news or something that, Hey, we think this is a possible lead. She came back and said, That was me. I didn't try to create any confusion. It was a misunderstanding more than anything. It wasn't her fault.

All at once, they were back at Square One, and square one was the last person to see Georgia, Brett. So they decided to give him a polygraph, which he took willingly and passed. But no other leads panned out, and no one else came forward with any reliable sightings. So the rest of 1999 passed without so much as a whisper from Georgia herself. But with the turn of the century came a bizarre twist that no one saw coming. In late March of 2000, police learned about a strange interaction at a Walmart in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, which is only about 10 minutes or so from Champlin. A cashier told them that she'd been casually chatting with this older woman with graying hair while checking her out at the register. The woman noticed that the cashier was wearing a Where's Grandma pin in support of the ongoing search for Georgia. They spoke a little about Georgia's case, and over the course of their conversation, the cashier just casually mentioned that one of George's grandsons, Robert, also worked at that very Walmart. She said the woman finished checking out and left the store, but then a few days later, she came back.

And this time, she came back with a handwritten letter addressed to Robert. She handed the note to another employee and asked them to get it to George's grandson. We were able to get a copy of the original handwritten letter. And although it was mostly legible, some of the handwriting was smudged or more difficult to read. But here's what our reporter Jacy and investigator Michael were able to decipher from the loopy cursive in blue ink. Date, 321, 2000. Dear Father, the car was blue in the woods. Blue is power, which means the car is the key. A car's license plates can be transferred. A car license plates can be changed. And then there's a star before this sentence. A car license plates It can be held in a junkyard for years. It is illegal, but done all the time. But done all the time is underlined. There's another star before this sentence. If someone sold the car, but the plates are still in the box at the junkyard, the car would be there being scrapped out, sold for parts. If the someone who is keeping grandma is in nearly as poor shape, mind as her, she might be in loving company who is unaware people are looking for her.

There are many people without families wondering around in this society. Do I give this letter to someone who will give it to her grandson? Love you, Jay. And then at the bottom of the note in the same handwriting and blue pen written almost as a response. It reads, Dear Jay, yes, dad. Now, obviously, this letter was confusing. Jacy and Investigator Michael discussed a few possible interpretations, One of which being that it could have been insinuating that Georgia was being cared for by some unnamed person who was unaware that she had been reported missing. Another idea was that it could be claiming something sinister went down with Georgia's car and/or license plate, and That's why the vehicle hasn't been located. And lastly, and probably the most popular analysis.

One of our officers, his opinion at the time is that he thought it was just someone pandering for attention.

Still, law enforcement took this lead seriously enough to hold a press conference in attempt to track down the woman who had left this letter. There was surveillance footage from the Walmart, but we're talking 2000 here, so the video ended up being too grainy to be of any real help. A detective even took the footage to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, better known as the BCA. He was trying to see if they would be able to enlarge one of the frames where the woman was walking into the store pushing her cart. But to his disappointment, nothing could be done to improve the quality of the image. So that woman, even to this day, has never been located, and she never showed back up at the Walmart. There's really no theory police subscribe to today about the letter. Even the idea of someone wanting attention goes out the window because no one came forward to get the attention, and then they left the letter signed without a full name. It's just a puzzling mystery within a puzzling mystery. As the one year anniversary of George's disappearance loomed, police reinvigorated search efforts. They decided to re-interview all of George's close relatives, which, of course, included questioning Brett once again.

During this process, Brett agreed to take a voice stress analysis test, which he failed. So they offered him another one, and he failed again. Unable to explain why Brett would have passed an initial polygraph exam early on in the investigation, but then failed these two voice stress tests a year later, police contacted the FBI who referred them to their national head agent for polygraph administering. And that agent told investigators that the FBI does not use voice stress analysis testing and that in his opinion, they are completely unreliable. Not to mention, it also sounds like the guy who gave Brett the two failed tests was a bit of a novice. Now, amidst all this voice stress test polygraph drama, Brett was also asked if he would come to the Sheriff's office for another formal interview. While he reluctantly agreed in the moment when he was actually supposed to meet investigators, he never showed No explanation, no phone call, nothing. So a detective called him to see what was up, and Brett said that he had thought about it during the night and decided he was no longer willing to cooperate with police. To be fair, reading the detective's report on this interaction, I get the feeling Brett was extremely frustrated that he was still being questioned so heavily.

As he had stated, he had already submitted to a polygraph, searches, voice stress analysis tests, and he had shown up to all of the press conferences. He was at a point where he didn't know what more he could do to prove to them he played no part in his mother's disappearance. So investigators eventually pivoted back to the theory that maybe Georgia had been in an accident, missed a turn, or had a heart attack along the way, and drove her car into a body of water. So in the summer of 2000, with the assistance of the Washburn County Sheriff's office, the Champlin Police Department worked with the Hennepin County dive team to coordinate a search of a body of water where this was most likely have happened if they were right about one of the possible routes she took that fateful night. And that body of water would have been the pond at Chicago Creek in Wisconsin. With the family watching anxiously, a diver went into the water and did a thorough search of the bottom of the pond. That diver resurface without discovering George's vehicle, and he noted that there didn't appear to be any signs that a car had ever been down there.

After this, investigators felt that there wasn't much more they could do in the early 2000s, outside of keeping an eye out for any signs of Georgia and her blue Mercedes. Every now and then, they would hold a press conference to try and renew public interest in the case. Georgia's children work to keep their mom's case in the spotlight as well by traveling to hand out flyers and holding a public Remembrance Service in 2003. But year after year, dead end after dead end, they were left with nothing, no sign of their mom, no clue as to where she went. Things stayed pretty quiet until 2022, when a volunteer group jumped in and tried to help. An Oregon-based Search and Rescue Dive team that takes on cold cases, Search to the Saint Croix River by Taylor's Falls, looking for any evidence of Georgia or her car. Investigator Michael said that the group probably chose the St. Croy for a reason. Georgia's likely route would have intersected this body of water.

When you follow the most likely route, if her car is surmerged in water, the chances of it being a pond versus a river, well, it's a lot more likely to be a river, right? I mean, how many ponds are there? You know that 10 feet offshore, it's over 10 feet deep. Probably not many. So I think you start there with the most likely, well, if her car is fully surmerged, it's very likely in a river. Obviously, we got the Mississippi River is a mile away from here, but it's such a populated area that a car goes in the river and goes past over a bridge, you're going to see the sign of that.

To everyone's appointment, no signs of Georgia or her vehicle were found during the search. But the silver lining is that they now know where she's not, so any future searches can focus their time and energy elsewhere. Brett passed away in 2014 with no answers as to whatever happened to his mother. And since he's not here to speak for himself, we want to make it very clear that there were never any criminal charges against him relating to Georgia's case.

He was never charged. Brett was never charged with anything. There was never enough evidence. In my mind, never even close to enough evidence.

Michael thinks the most likely scenario is that Georgia had a tragic accident that ended with her car submerged in some body of water still waiting to be found. I personally can't shake the feeling that maybe she got confused and maybe she's still out there somewhere, or at least was. For me, it's something about the way she was adamant about paying her property taxes on June 30th, even though she had until July 31st. I don't know that she mixed up the dates, but I've personally been close to family members who have suffered from both dementia and Alzheimer's, and this exact thing tracks. And I know it's optimistic. I know, but I try to be. The truth of the matter is until the moment George's family can bring her home, they're all left with questions. And that's a painful reality to live in for so many years. Investigator Michael says he's a big believer in the power of a podcast, and he's hopeful that this one has the potential to bring some peace to George's loved ones who are still here.

I think this is a big first step in today's social media, there's quite a heavy presence. I'm sure you see it firsthand more than anyone. What the listening audience can actually do when they put their heads together, it's quite incredible. Extra awareness obviously helps. I probably would assume that at some point, if this is here, we get at least a a few phone calls of people that remember something from 20 years ago that is still in their memory.

Georgia Smith would have turned 101 years old this year. She has blue eyes, and at the time of her disappearance, graying Auburn brown hair. She was 5'3 tall and weighed about 110 pounds. The last clothing she was known to have been wearing was a black shirt with purple flowers and black shoes with zippers on the tops. The car she was driving was a dark, metallic blue, four-door 1984 Mercedes Benz 190D Sedan with a Wisconsin license plate number TXP-401. You can find photos of Georgia and her vehicle in the blog host for this episode. If you think you've been holding on to a clue that could help find Georgia, please call the Champlin Police Department at 952-258-5321. Deck is an audio check production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about The Deck and ourdeckpodcast. Com. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?