Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And we are back with part two of Bonnie's story.
Chapter 2: What happened to Bonnie Lee Schultz on July 4, 1997?
If you missed last week's episode, pause, go back. You got to know where we've been to know where we're going. Because where we left off, I am sure it's easy for you to understand why people have been suspicious of Bonnie's husband since she went missing in 1997.
Bonnie and Rick's son, Josh, even admitted to us that for a portion of his life growing up, he wondered if his dad could have done something because he had everyone in his ear telling him as much. He said he would even be willing to accept that his dad did it if police could prove it, show him any evidence, even a theory of how that actually makes sense.
and show him that they've looked into everyone else. But they didn't. So we tried to.
Chapter 3: Why were investigators suspicious of Bonnie's husband, Rick?
And I think there is an entirely different side to this story that hasn't been told until now. When I say that police never really looked into anyone else because they were so suspicious of Rick, I also want to be clear that I don't think they ever really did a thorough enough look at Rick to justify their suspicions. They never searched his house in those early years.
They only searched it in 2000 when Rick was getting the house ready to sell. The police, I guess, had heard that he changed out the carpet and there might have been a stain on the subfloor. So they got a warrant, ripped up the carpet, tested the stain, but it wasn't any kind of bodily fluid.
They didn't do any kind of forensic testing in the garage, which like in my mind, if your theory is that he followed her, wouldn't it make sense that something happened in the garage? No one even bothers to check for that.
So they're really just basing their suspicions on Rick on, like, what? The fact that she wanted a divorce and the number one mom necklace that Gretchen gave investigators? Like, that's not a lot.
And I think the fact that he knew where to look for her and on the route that we know she drove home. And also, I didn't mention this yet, but on phone records, Bonnie had a cell phone with her. And Rick said that he tried to call her when she was missing. But police say that the home phone records don't show any calls.
And the cell phone provider says that there had been no activity on Bonnie's cell since like a day or two before she went missing. But the problem I have with this is they never got Rick's cell phone records. And when we asked to see Bonnie's records to prove that there were no unanswered incoming calls, the police said they don't have them.
They said there was like some kind of issue getting the records from the phone company. So they were just told verbally by her provider. Which I don't know. I've seen enough human error over the years that like that is not going to like convince it or I'm not going to convict someone for that based on.
Yeah. And I also wonder what the cell provider actually logged, like did unanswered incoming calls even register back then?
I mean, there's so many questions. I don't know for sure since we could not obviously get the actual records. And I know every provider is different. And we're talking 1997. That's a whole different beast. But I mean, I've seen in other true crime cases that date back to the 90s where back then it would only log the calls that would be charged.
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Chapter 4: What evidence did police overlook in Bonnie's case?
They consolidated. And that's what we now know as IMPD. And that is who is the lead agency today. So around that time, that's when Detective Catherine Byron finally goes up to Michigan and has another conversation with Rick like 10 years in the making. And Josh gave us that transcript as well. So I figured you should hear exactly what Rick had to say.
Now, again, I would have loved for you to hear it from his own mouth, but our records request from IMPD was denied, right? So we're having voice actors read this transcript.
This is a taped statement being conducted by Catherine Byron of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Today's date is April 25th, 2007. The time is now approximately 1025 a.m., and we are located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Present are myself and Mr. Richard Schultz. Okay. Um, I guess this is a meeting that's been, what, 10 years in the making?
Pretty close.
And I called you about, what, six weeks ago?
Something like that, yes.
Completely out of the blue, right?
Yeah.
So this is really other than that initial phone call and a couple of scheduling phone calls here and there. This is really the first time we've had an opportunity to talk.
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Chapter 5: How did Bonnie's son, Josh, feel about the investigation?
It's very much like a like, don't call us. We'll call you vibes.
Yeah. And have they done any actual searches for her or the car? I mean, the past 10 years, like I know the family did. But what about the actual detectives on the case?
So they did extensive searching like they did multiple air searches I know with like a helicopter looking for signs of her car. I know they also did several water searches over the years but they didn't have sonar back in 1997. So they had to use a police dive team and when they did that they didn't find anything. And they did a lot of legwork, too.
But all the legwork was very much like around this, like any idea that could help them prove like the Rick did it theory. So they went to all these storage units in the Indianapolis area, I think, looking for her car. They checked all of the bus records and cab records, thinking that if Rick got rid of her in her car, he would have had to get a ride back home.
But they never found that he was on any bus or took any cab. No storage units either. So going back to the tape in this interview, they ask Rick what he thought could have happened.
What is your theory? Ten years. What is what is what has gone through your mind in 10 years?
You know, the TV guy, Scott, asked me that over the phone. And it's like, you know, I don't know. I guess, you know. It's as I told him originally, I said, I don't think she would just voluntarily leave, especially her children. Um, if she encountered something that she couldn't get herself out of, I mean, you think again, the car would have been found by now.
Uh, if she had a accident, I mean, the car would have been found right away. So, I mean, I don't know. I don't know how you hide something like that for that long a period of time. Uh, Unless, and I still don't think, I don't think she voluntarily ran away. And if she did, I don't think she would stay away this long.
Right. It'd be pretty hard for someone to conceal herself and a car for this amount of time.
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Chapter 6: What theories exist about Bonnie's disappearance?
Her family, Bonnie's family, came the next week. Like, they're all driving around in the cars that they had. And I don't know. Again, I don't know what it means. I only brought it up because I feel like it just gives you a little bit of context and a sense that I think that they might have come into this interview with a strong opinion.
And this is really, you know, what Josh has been saying, that all the work that they're willing to do is to try to look at Rick, try to get Rick to slip up. And it doesn't seem like they're really looking for other investigative avenues, even 10 years later when she and the car still haven't been found.
And there were some marital problems, right? Right.
Yeah, there was.
And who doesn't? I mean, what? What marriage is without problems? What were the issues? Do you remember?
You know, I spent a lot of time thinking about that over the years. And, you know, Bonnie, I think, and again, in thinking back, you know, she changed quite a bit after her mother died. Her mother died two years before this happened, I believe. And she died of some type of cancer, but I mean, it was two months after being diagnosed.
Oh, it was quick.
I think it hit her pretty hard. And then I started getting things, you know, we don't have anything in common. And I was comparing again over the years. That's what I saw in her appearance. Her mother was a genealogy person, and her dad was a fisherman and stuff like that. They had nothing in common. And I said, well, we're not unlike anybody else.
I mean, we each have our own interests, but what we have in common is the family. And it just seemed like she just started getting more and more unhappy with lots of things. She said a couple of times she wasn't happy because her family didn't come to visit her often enough. She always had to go see them. And just, she had changed.
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Chapter 7: What new information emerged from interviews with Rick?
That's the most difficult part of it all, is not knowing what happened.
The lack of closure.
Although, you know, I've thought about that over the years, too. I don't know that there, in a situation like this, that there ever is closure. I think there's, again, you know what?
Resolution?
Yeah, and I've I know what most people mean. When they say closure, it gives you, uh, you know what happened. And I guess going forward from there and dealing with that is easier than what we've been dealing with for 10 years. And that's, we don't know what. Is there anything you found out that you can tell me or us?
No, not yet. Like I said, I was just recently reassigned to the case. So I'm starting over, looking at it with fresh eyes. So I'm in the process right now, sorting through everything and seeing what I can do. So unfortunately, no, I don't really think I have anything new to tell you. I wish I did. I'm confident that this case can be resolved. I do believe that.
What is that based on, just personally?
Detective Byron basically just says, based on the facts of the case, she thinks it's solvable and everyone deserves that, especially Bonnie's family, her kids. She wants them to know that their mom didn't leave them. And then she hard pivots back to the morning of July 4th, asking what his first thoughts were. But he just says more of the same that he said back in 97.
It does feel like he's a little all over the map though. Like he said earlier in the interview that he doesn't believe that she just walked off, that she had to have encountered some kind of situation that she just couldn't get herself out of. But then he talks about her like maybe coming back someday, even if that's like some slim possibility.
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Chapter 8: How did the detectives' approach change over the years?
I get why the relationship is strained between them and police, because I guess when they were doing the search of the house, they found like a tiny amount of weed when they were searching in Josh's room or somewhere on Josh, whatever. And he legit got charged for it. Sergeant Kistner said that he had no idea that happened.
He said that would have been done by like Michigan police and he never would have done that. He was just there to find out what happened to Bonnie. Like he wouldn't have had any interest in busting a kid for weed.
Listen, I'm not saying the police are wrong about their theory, but I genuinely still don't know what I think. But I fully get why the kids would be frustrated with them. Like this whole scenario that's unfolding feels really frustrated and pointed and not backed by much.
Yeah. And like, at least from the way that Rick tells it, like, or from what I've seen from his transcripts, right? Like, he's the one asking for updates and not getting much. Josh and his dad and relatives are the ones out there searching for the whole weekend before the sheriff's office put anyone on the case. They're learning stuff through the media.
And now even the kids are treated like criminals. And Josh's wife, Crystal, told us that part of the reason Gretchen doesn't like talking to people is because they always accuse her of knowing more.
That like she was in the house that night and, you know, maybe it's not as big as her covering up for something, but that she has to have like some secret piece of information locked away in her brain about whether her dad left the house that night or if she heard her mom come home and something happened. And listen, we heard this from multiple sources in our reporting.
We heard it from investigators, even their own Uncle Mike. But this is where I'm saying, just like, hold on for one second. I get so many things look bad. But for one second, if we kept an open mind, if we believed Gretchen... that she doesn't know anything more. Her mom left. She went to bed. When she woke up, her mom wasn't there, but her dad was and everything was normal.
What if there is nothing more to tell? What if we don't know what happened to Bonnie because her family truly doesn't know and that is the only place anyone has really looked? So. Remember Diane? Bonnie's like neighbor, friend or like who lived close to her. Yeah. She was one of the people who instantly became suspicious of Rick. This is, can I tell you something spooky that happened? Always.
It was my like full body chills when I was going through the file and like all of the interviews. So losing her friend and never knowing what happened, obviously, is just something that never left her. And when our reporter was interviewing her, she said that over the years, at like all different stages of life, she had gone to mediums, three different ones, all separate.
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