she s down by the river, she s 25 feet to the west of the bridge. how surreal it was for mac when he got to the scene, he remembered back to what the psychic had said. he was amazed that the area was so much as the psychic had described it. one of the first things that popped into my head was when we first got out there, you know, the bridge. the banks of the river. the field of flowers. it was unbelievable. the tranquility of the river and woods on that july day in 2008 was in stark contrast to what the searchers hoped they d find there, the burial site of cindy zarzycki. art ream had dug a grave site in what turned out to be a floodplain. maybe all trace of cindy had been washed away. cadaver dogs didn t find anything. we weren t exactly sure where it was. i knew she was there. but it was still trying to find
13-year-old cindy zarzycki the media picked it up and interest in the fate of the missing teen was revived, with cindy s face popping up on have you seen me mailings like this one. connie, there was a message to the police here, wasn t it? we re still here, we haven t gone away? right. and you need to get this going again. right. and i had written a poem, i actually had that poem published. do you remember a few lines of it? cindy jo, where did you go? and it talked about looking for her. my poem was mostly that she s out there and i ll find her. that s when the family recalled one of cindy s favorite songs from the old mix tapes. cyndi lauper s time after time. the chorus spoke to them. if you look, you will find me, time after time. and if cindy came looking for them, the family made sure that the old home phone number never got changed.
later. your theory is art ream has been grooming his son s girlfriend. he gets the son out of dodge, in texas. and the prosecutor said there was one more circumstance yat sign of art ream s connection to cindy. and it was the only physical evidence of significance produced in the case. exhibit number ten. exhibit ten is a mailer coupon that has a missing picture of cindy zarzycki. in 2007 you remember, detective mclaughlin had uncovered the curious item tucked away in a jewelry box in ream s old carpet warehouse. why in the world would ream have it there, the prosecutor asked the detective? they re like trophies, they like to save things that the normal person wouldn t. in his cross-examination of the detective, defense attorney tim kohler, argued that art ream hasn t been in that warehouse for years and suggested the evidence could have been tainted.
declare to an accomplice, if i ever do this again, i ll kill the next victim. two rulings from the bench that were two strikes against the prosecution. the case is diminished. it would be like entering a gunfight with only part of your arsenal. the prosecutor began his case by knocking down the runaway theory. older sister connie testified that cindy would never have done a runner without packing a bag. i have a photographic memory and i know her stuff was still there. she didn t take makeup or clothes or anything. what was her state of mind? happy? unhappy? she was one of the most happy easy to get along with people. she let things slide off her back. cindy zarzycki is the poster child for not being a runaway. she loved her family, she had no drug addiction, she had no mental illnesses. she is the last 13-year-old who would run away. what had happened to her then was suggested by the testimony of two of her best friends.
a boy cathy had never met. cindy used the phone to finalize surreptitious plans. she would go to the dairy queen and get a ride to a surprise birthday party planned for scott the next day, sunday. cathy would be the alibi. she had told mr. zarzycki that she was going to church with me the next morning. come the next morning, cindy told her kid brother she was going out for a while. i m like, where? you know, we re supposed to be together. dad s not going to be happy with us. and then she was like, i m going, just stay here, and then she started walking, and i followed her, and she was like, go home, go back, and that s when she really changed her voice and screamed at me to go back, i was about supposed to come there. you can t be the tag along kid brother? yep. the infatuated 13-year-old softball case in her cool white boots and jean purse pivoted and strolled to the dairy queen. and then, she vanished. coming up frantic hours,