Chapter 1: What stories of loss and discovery are shared in this episode?
This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Sarah Austin Janess. In this episode, lost and found stories. Heirlooms lost, old ways of life gone, and what is found in their stead. Our curatorial producer, Suzanne Rust, found out about our first storyteller, Ross Jessup, through an article in a local Missoula, Montana newspaper, and she reached out.
Ross later told us, I thought it was a scam, and so did my lieutenant. I told my wife about it, and she said, the moth? It's not a scam. Call them. I listen all the time. So we begin this episode lost in the woods of Lolo National Forest in Missoula, Montana, with Ross Jessup, a cop, 10 years into the police force.
He came to New York to tell his story outside in Greenwood Cemetery, so you may hear the occasional airplane. We partner with the Greenwood Historic Fund. And just a note, this story involves a crime, and there is some intensity. Here's Ross Jessup, live at the Moth.
It's July 7th, scorching hot, 95 degrees. I'm in a Dodge Durango driving on a dusty road. I'm a cop. I responded to a call where there was a man acting disorderly who was last seen running through a forest. This man had possibly crashed a blue car and he was caring for a baby. I'm at the end of the road. I'm depressed. I'm struggling. My marriage is falling apart.
And in front of me, there's nothing but large bushes and pine trees that had overgrown the road that I was on. Another dead end. I turned my patrol car around to continue the search. The area that I'm searching is Lolo National Forest. It's 2.1 million square miles. That's a little bit larger than Delaware, folks. I continue searching for hours.
At approximately 10.30, my patrol radio breaks silent since my partner. He says to me, Ross, we know who the suspect is. He's a man, felon, wanted out of Oregon. He's a known drug user and he's violent. He has guns and he's made threats towards law enforcement. I'm 20 miles away, so I go.
I meet other officers, knowing that we have about a half a mile walk into the campsite that where he's staying at. I put on my night vision. I take out my long rifle, strap it over my chest. My heart's pounding. I'm nervous. I'm focused and I'm full of adrenaline. I'm ready for combat. Silently walking in to the pitch black forest. It's about 40 degrees now. And I see his tent. But it's empty.
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Chapter 2: How does Ross Jessup navigate a search for a missing baby?
My partner finds a stash of guns that had been set out to ambush the cops when we got there. There's no people in the campsite. I open up the tent and I look around and I see diapers and dirty clothes and dirty dishes and baby toys. My heart sinks. and I'm crushed.
It wasn't until that time we were just speculating, but now I knew that we're looking for a five month old baby boy named Nobody knows where he's at. As I'm scrambling my brain to try to figure out what I'm gonna do next, My portable radio breaks squelch and it's my dispatch center and it's a broken transmission. The suspect has been arrested.
So I run back to my patrol car and I drive as fast as I can to where he's at. I see a man that Is dirty his hair is a mess. He doesn't have any pants on. He's screaming wildly at everybody. And just making no sense. He's more concerned about his telephone than anything else. All that pent up adrenaline that I just had. Kind of went to the wayside and I just became pissed.
I tried interrogating him to no avail. I wanted to just strangle the truth out of this guy, but I didn't. I yelled at him, begging and pleading him to tell us where we could find . And he says to me, is dead. I buried him alive. I crashed off of a cliff. You won't find him. I don't know where he's at. Enraged. I'm asking him for more information.
And he tells me about, he tells me about a bush that he had drove over and started to ramble on and on and on. And the bush in my head just kept echoing and echoing. I knew where I had to go. I got the help from the Forest Service with their four-wheeler and I went up with a Forest Service officer back up to the same road that I'd already been up earlier that night.
And when we get to the bush, we drive around it and we continue driving for less than a quarter mile before What was left of that road completely disappears. Now we're just on a mountain slope, about 30 degree slopes, no trails, overgrown with bushes and trees. I'm devastated because there was supposed to be a car up here, but there wasn't. I want to scream, and I'm walking downslope.
And I see an overturned boulder the size of a basketball. And I look where that boulder was and there was tread marks in the dirt. I continue to look and soon find a dome light. Very dim dome light of a car that had been crashed into a grove of pine trees. I rushed to the car and I find. Debris scattered all around it.
A chainsaw that had been stuck in the middle of the tree because our suspect had tried to cut himself out of being stuck. And I frantically get into the car, but there's no baby. I start to look around the crash site and I start following a trail of debris playing cards. Some diapers here and there and slowly and slowly we walk down down slope of the crash.
And about 100 yards here and 100 yards there. I'm still picking up traces of of of human. Till I come to the bottom of the ravine where it's just completely muddy. All signs stop. My partner had to go back to the crash site to meet the search and rescue people that were on their way up. And here I was alone in the forest and somewhere in Montana. Not knowing what differences I make.
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Chapter 3: What personal struggles does Ross face during his search?
And in between pants, there's a moment of silence in a black forest. And in that moment, I hear this small, precious little baby whimper. At first, I couldn't believe it. And I heard it again. And if I was to describe this sound, it would be the sound of a baby that has cried and cried and cried and cried and cried until he couldn't cry anymore.
I've never heard anything like it and I hope I never have to hear anything again like it. I rushed towards the sound. and it's pitch black and my headlight's on and my flashlights are on and I can barely see anything. I'm about to step over this pile of debris and there's Greg buried underneath sticks and twigs face down. He's wearing a onesie. He's soiled and he's wet. I remove all the sticks.
And I wrap Griffin up in a down coat. And I kiss his forehead and I cry. And I hold Griffin and I walk him down the mountain. And the whole time he's coughing up sticks and twigs out of his mouth. I get to the ambulance. and turned Grayson over to their care. In less than a minute and a half, Grayson drinks two bottles of Enfamil. He was that dehydrated.
However, Grayson's a strong kid and he's alive today and healthy. I go back to my patrol car. I think I had forgot to mention this at the beginning of the story. But July 7th is my anniversary. And when I left that house that night, I left my wife angry because I chose not to take the time off, even though I could have.
So when I got home at 7.30 in the morning, way into overtime, I walk into my kitchen where my beautiful wife was drinking coffee. And she asked me, how was your night? I smiled at her. I said I made a difference last night.
That was Ross Jessop. Ross is still a cop in Missoula, Montana, and a canine handler for Missoula County. And he's recently received the Department of Justice Attorney General's Award and the Charles Budd Meeks Award for Deputy Sheriff of the Year.
Ross and the baby were both lost and found and I asked Ross if all these years later he's still questioning everything or if this memory pulls him through the tough days. He said, some days are hard and I still have PTSD. This particular experience has changed me.
Sometimes it haunts me, revealing the evil we face from time to time and other times it shows me that we can all make a difference by acting together. To see a photo of Ross with his family and his medals, visit our website, themoth.org. After our break, a woman comes out of hiding and a Beatles fan falls in love. When the Moth Radio Hour continues...
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Hey, psst, you didn't hear this from me, but Normal Gossip is back for its ninth season. Join me, Rachel Hampton, as I share the juiciest gossip from the real world with some very special guests.
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