Gary DeVore had it all. A successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter, a beautiful wife, his dream home, good friends. But everything changed the night of June 27th, 1997. I didn't understand that people go missing this way. It's a very odd thing. You have no idea what it's like to lose a human being on your watch.

Gary DeVore was on a road trip, driving home from New Mexico in the middle of the night. His wife, Wendy, was waiting up for him in their home overlooking the beach near Santa Barbara. Gary called a few times to check in along the way, and everything seemed normal until his last call.

I said, Gary, are you okay? And he said, I'm pumping pure adrenaline here. I said, Gary. And he said, Got to go. Writers picked their words very carefully. I'm pumping pure adrenaline here is not a normal thing that he would say ever. That last.

Ping from his cell phone came from a remote Denny's on Highway 14 in the middle of the California desert. Nobody ever saw Gary DeVore alive again.

The search is on tonight for a local screenwriter who never arrived back home from an out-of-town trip. Highway Patrol and the L. A. County Sheriff's Department have both been on the lookout for any sign of DeVore's car. And so far they tell us they have nothing to report. It's like Gary DeVore simply vanished into thin air.

Gary was a hit machine. He'd written for the biggest action heroes of the 90s. Wesley Snipes, Tommy Lee Jones, Jean-Claude Van Damme. And when it looked like his actual life had morphed into one of his thrillers, Hollywood wanted to help.

The minute that I heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger was active in trying to find Gary, I thought he would. I had the biggest action stars in Hollywood, searching for my husband.

The thing is, it wasn't just Gary that went missing that night. When he vanished, he had the only copy of his latest screenplay with him. In this screenplay, it may have contained secrets about the US government that transcended the world of make-belief, secrets that certain officials may have wanted buried. Given Gary's connections, it wouldn't have been a stretch. The CIA had had an office in.

Hollywood that.

They'd set up.

In the mid-1990s. Gary told me that this script was going to blow the lid off the CIA. I absolutely think it's the Department of Intelligence. I have no doubt. You should never have written it. And it did have classified information.

This thing with the CIA, you don't want to get involved with those people in a negative way. He didn't care. He'd challenge anybody. He was tough. I'm not to tell you, he was a tough guy.

He wouldn't have.

Gone easily. So the disappearing was just the weirdest thing. Speculation over divorce fate continues to this day. Was he a secret operative with a double life, victim of a drug cartel assassination? Or was he just a careless driver on a treacherous piece of highway? The evidence is elusive.

When they pulled the car out with the skeletonized body inside, I said, There's something wrong here. It's not him. It's not him because he's wearing a seatbelt. And then I see there are no hands. Where are the hands?

From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this has witnessed Season 5, Fade to Black, the mysterious disappearance of screenwriter Gary DeVore, and the rise of the CIA in Hollywood. Coming November first, subscribe on Apple Podcast to binge all episodes or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.