Prime Time Krime

Sara Bushman

Right now In true crime. Black Swam trial verdict, arrests made in Amber Spradlin case.

In 1995, Sara Bushland was a 15 year old high school student who had recently moved back home to Wisconsin with her mom, step dad and step brothers. Then one day she disappeared when she got off the school bus at home her home. Let’s chat about this case, all the twists and turns and rabbit holes and where it stands today.

Sources for episode:

https://charleyproject.org/case/sara-anne-bushland

https://www.solvethecase.org/case/1996-4/timeline

https://youtu.be/_whyMlw01bg?si=gnml4rdaJAr8wv4u

https://www.apg-wi.com/spooner_advocate/free/part-2-twenty-two-years-later-still-searching-for-sara-bushland/article_ca6f52b4-375c-11e8-92d1-0fe395a97b95.html

https://www.apg-wi.com/spooner_advocate/obituaries/james-jim-orrin-lambert/article_aaf4ec74-6010-11e7-8621-3f0d2b9514fa.html

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/share/9cpCQqKh9KZh3rJH/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Duration:: 1h 2m
Broadcast on:: 02 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down it can turn up the heat literally but don't sweat it Granger has you covered Granger offers over a million industrial grade products for all your operations including warehouse HVAC maintenance and even better they offer access to experts and fast delivery so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool call 1 800 Granger click Granger dot com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. All witnesses, perches of interest and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law warning this episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as talk of sexual assault it may be sensitive for some listeners. What's up freakin weirdos my name is Kevin and I'm the host of where the weird ones are podcast this is a conversational podcast based on guest experiences and encounters with paranormal cryptids aliens spirituality mental health as well as conspiracies. If these topics interest you you can find me on Amazon music Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeartRadio as well as YouTube and rumble if you have an encounter or an experience of something that you can't quite explain I'd love to hear from you you can reach out to me at where the weird ones are at gmail.com where underscore the weird ones are on instagram and where the weird ones are on facebook I hope to hear you from me my friends question everything. It's day weird welcome to prime time crime I'm your host Kylie let's talk right now and true crime and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases let's go. Hey guys welcome back to another episode of prime time crime it's Kylie we have a couple of things one very important thing to talk about right now and true crime but I do want to start with as she's been a field the black swan trial she is the one who was on trial for murdering her husband and her claim was that it was self-defense he was abusive so on and so forth and the jury got the case and by Tuesday evening at 11pm we had a verdict which was guilty of manslaughter and her potential sentence is 30 years in prison they have taken her into custody and her sentencing will be at a later date but this one I was honestly a little bit surprised because I kind of felt like it was going to be a hung jury I don't know why but there was a lot of evidence that her husband had done some not so fantastic things in the past and he did show patterns of abuse but she was very much on trial for allegedly killing him murdering him and her go to of course was it was self-defense he was attacking me and I had no choice but to defend myself but they did find her guilty and I will be sure to keep you updated on the sentence when that comes about and honestly I was kind of surprised that they kept deliberating as long as they did because they went into almost 11 o'clock at night with before they came back with the verdict and I was fast to sleep before that verdict came back and when I woke up I was shocked that they had come up with the verdict they stayed and deliberated and they came up with manslaughter so there you have it folks all right next thing I want to talk about super super important case update I did a episode previously on a young lady from Kentucky named Amber Sprablin who was senselessly murdered in a home where she was a guest and in the episode I talked about a lot of the lies and cover up and corruption that was going on in the state of Kentucky with Amber's case because one of the people the home that she was at was the home of a dentist a very prominent person in the community had a lot of higher up official friends and it seemingly seemed like this murder was just going to be covered up and nobody was going to be held accountable the murder happened in June of 2023 well Tuesday of this week I can officially say that they made three arrests in Amber's case and I'm going to talk a little bit about the arrests who they arrested the charges and we're just going to chat about it a little bit more now I will say I 100% think that the reason that these arrests finally happened is because Amber's friends family supporters in the community and around the country who have been intrigued by her case never stopped pushing for answers and that is why I think what we do is so important because we have to keep putting these stories out there and keep putting the word out there so the people that are responsible feel the pressure and get to that point where they are scared every day waking up that it's going to be their last day and they're nice warm beds and that is why we do what we do because these stories can never rest they can never stop and a year is a long time to wait for justice but some people wait for 30 years 40 years 40 plus years to get justice for their loved ones who have been so heinously taken at the hand of another and that is why we continue to do what we do we share every single story until every family has resolution now this is just a little nudge in the right direction in Amber's story and I know there's a long way to go we still have a lot more to go as far as getting justice for her but this is exactly what we needed to kind of refuel everyone that is involved in the story give us a little bit of hope that maybe there is going to be some accountability and I think for that it's so important so we are now going to talk about who they arrested their bond amounts their charges and go from there Okay so first up we have Michael McKinney III who was arrested on a charge of murder as well as seven charges of complicity to tampering with physical evidence then we have Dr. Michael McKinney II he is the father the dentist who was indicted on charges of seven charges of complicity to tampering with physical evidence and then we also have a guy named Josh Mullins who is 23 years old his nickname is square I don't understand and he ended up getting the same charges as the dentist so I couldn't say this in the episode because they had never publicly named an actual suspect in the murder of Amber but there was a lot of people alluding to the fact that the son of the dentist Michael McKinney who goes by MK was the one that committed this horrific crime against Amber and of course his dad and this friend of his who's also maybe like an adopted son of the dentist so kind of like a brother to MK named Josh is responsible for covering up the murder So important to note there were six people in the house that night that Amber was killed one of them was Amber so we have five people three of them the ones that didn't talk just got arrested the other two were willing and talking to investigators and I think that if it wasn't for them and Amber's family and friends pushing for this that there would not have been any arrests made so I am grateful that those people were cooperative and did push for telling the truth and being on the right side of the law I am going to read this article and it's just going to talk about the indictments according to the indictments in addition to MK McKinney committing the murder. The three men were complicit in tampering with evidence including the handle from the broken knife used to murder Amber Sprattlin, the clothing worn by MK McKinney at the time of the murder which was in the sinks in the kitchen and laundry utility room of the residence in which Amber Sprattlin was murdered, a surveillance camera which would have captured Amber's murder, a digital video recorder which contained footage from surveillance video cameras in the residence and a hard drive from the only PC in the residence which contained information about the surveillance cameras that were on the wireless network in the residence basically saying that they covered that up deleted all the footage so there was no actual evidence that they Michael MK with the one who murdered Amber Debbie Hall is Amber's cousin and has been responsible for really leading the charge into keeping this case in the public eye and she is quoted as to saying finally our community can feel relieved knowing that those responsible were soon faced a jury of their neighbors and the penalties that the jury will impose for their crimes. Although there are others who have yet to be criminally charged as a result of their involvement in the attempted cover up and those who will only suffer civil penalties for what they have done each of them need to know that they will have to live with what they did to put into motion the events which resulted in Amber's death. The reason for the time involved in this investigation was related to those who did everything possible to destroy the evidence. In the end, what you will learn as the facts of the investigation unfold, it was Amber who was responsible for leaving the final clue which revealed those responsible for her murder and the way that I have chills when I read that I don't even know what's going to come out but I am very ready to hear what evidence they have against these guys. It's obvious they did it, it was obvious they did it when I did my episode but I couldn't accuse people of murder because I could get sued However, allegedly they did this and when you were in a house and one of the people doesn't come out of the house alive, you were the last person to see them. There is some shenanigans shady stuff going on behind the scenes and there needs to be more questions asked I'm so glad that there is accountability now in Amber's story. So MK Michael III has a $5 million bond, Dr. Michael McKinney a $250,000 bond and Josh Mullins a $100,000 bond. Josh and Dr. Dennis have made their bonds. They are two wear ankle monitors. They have to give up their passports. They're not allowed to drink any alcohol and they're going to be subjected to random drug tests, drug and alcohol tests but Michael, who is, I want to say he's in his early 20s, is still in prison and will be because I don't think he's going to be able to come up with his bond amount, although maybe he will, maybe he will. As far as I know the next court date is going to be October 24th. I do feel like there has to be more between now and then but I will be sure to keep you guys updated on that. But at the end of the day, this is a step in the right direction towards getting justice for Amber and that is exactly why we do everything we do with these episodes and these stories, putting pressure on the right people to make a move. And it's going to be really interesting to hear now what they're going to say because these are the three people that have kept their mouths shut the whole time and haven't offered up any little bit of information to investigators. So are they going to talk? Are they going to take a plea? I have a feeling dentist is going to do everything in his power to protect his two precious little children. And one of them, I guess, is I don't know if he's legally adopted, but he lives with the family. So it's going to be interesting to see what comes out, but we can rest assured that they're not going anywhere anytime soon and we soon hopefully will get justice for Amber. So that is it for right now in true crime and we are going to get started with today's episode. Okay guys, today we are jumping in to a brand new unsolved case and I am not going to lie when I tell you this one is quite the rabbit hole, the biggest rabbit hole I have been in in a while. So this one is probably going to be a two-parter because, holy moly, I'm overwhelmed. And if I'm overwhelmed, you're overwhelmed, obviously. So today we are going to be talking about the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl named Sarah Ann Bushland. Sarah Ann Bushland was born August 15th of 1980 to her parents Marie and Mike Bushland. Sarah had an older sister named Leslie who was about 18 months older, and the Bushland family resided in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. About four years after Sarah was born in 1984, the marriage of Mike and Marie was on the rocks and they legally separated. Shortly after this, Marie had started dating a man named Jim Lambert. He was a former police officer. He was also in the service and had done police work. He was in the service as well. Jim was also in the process of getting divorced and he had four kids, three boys and one girl. His kids were named Daniel, David, Dean, and a daughter Diana Lambert. The kids were all various ages, but Daniel, who we'll call Danny, was the oldest and he was 11 years old. Sarah and Leslie were around four and five years old. So Jim and Marie started their life together and they ended up moving into a mobile home that was in Lafayette County in New Jersey. So Jim, Marie, and then Danny and David, Leslie and Sarah all moved into this mobile home in New Jersey. And then the youngest of Jim's two kids stayed primarily with their mom, but they did visit the trailer every so often. So Jim and Marie both started to take on new jobs. They were working hard to try to provide for their growing family that had just kind of grown by more kids and they got a job at the same place and they often worked the same hours, the same shift. So in this, Danny was the oldest child. He at age 11 would be home watching all of the other kids. So here's where it gets a little dicey and I don't have exact information about what I'm about to say as far as who was the person that was doing this, but we're going to talk about it anyway because it's an important part of the story. So around this time, they didn't have this adult supervision. Sarah, who was for at the time, was sexually assaulted by a family member. Now we will get to it later, but in a Facebook post that was made by Leslie on the fine Sarah Bushland Facebook page, it is said that the person who was sexually assaulting Sarah and later other family members was a stepbrother. So one of the Lambert boys, presumably Danny, allegedly, in my opinion, from what I can gather. So Jim and Marie got married in 1987 and then in March of 1988, Jim and Marie ended up purchasing a home in the town of Spooner Wisconsin. And this home that they purchased, it had a lot of acreage, it was 65 acres, and there was a nice two story home on the property and it was very, very heavily covered in trees. And the house was about 200 yards away from the actual road. So it was very much set back from the street, lots of foliage, and you really couldn't see the house from the road. Sarah and Leslie also still spent time at their dad's house, and they would kind of alternate weekends. So as the family moved to this new home, unfortunately, the sexual abuse of Sarah continued and it then trickled on to Leslie and one of the boys in the family. So we have three people. It also said another girl was also a victim and I am not sure if this is alluding to the youngest Lambert child Diana being sexually abused. But regardless of this, there was some sinister stuff going on inside of the Lambert house and Jim and Marie found out about it and very much wanted to keep it quiet, wanted to keep it hush hush, wanted to handle it on their own. And basically told the kids that if they didn't talk about it with anyone that it would stop. Now, in the midst of this, Mike, who is Leslie and Sarah's father, finds out that his daughters are being sexually abused. And he ended up reporting it and the girls were legally removed from the home and would then go live with Mike in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. So Sarah and Leslie move out, they go to live with Mike and the Lambert home mysteriously catches fire and the home itself is destroyed, but they end up remodeling a smaller detached garage on the property. It was two stories and they ended up living in that so it was like a kind of a garage apartment. So all four members of the Lambert family, Marie, Jim, David, and Dean are all living in this two story garage apartment type of situation. They never took the insurance money and rebuilt the house, but they did end up putting in an additional driveway. Now, the driveway was very long because the house was set back so much on the property. They ended up putting an additional driveway in almost kind of like a roundabout so they would only be going up this driveway one way when they would pull up to the garage apartment, they would go in the driveway, the semi circular, you shaped driveway. And then they would leave and they would go down that same driveway so this driveway is kind of sort of important for the story because when I later talk about Sarah going missing, this driveway kind of comes into play. So shortly thereafter, Mike's job moved him to Colorado and Leslie and Sarah moved with him. At this point in time, Sarah was nine, Leslie was 10 and the girls had really started to settle into their new life and they were adjusting well to everything. Mike was a very good dad, he worked hard to provide for his daughters, he was trying to teach them right for wrong, because they had really had a rough upbringing, they had been sexually abused. And they had moved around a little bit with Jim and Marie so them being now in Colorado with their dad seems like the best place for them. But of course the girls got older, the teenage year started to hit, and the girls started to rebel, and they began very much to push their limits. At age 13, Sarah ended up being arrested for shoplifting. Leslie had said that her and Sarah had previously shoplifted together and then Sarah was arrested for the shoplifting on her own. So Mike of course was very disappointed by this and really didn't know how to handle it. And Sarah was really having a hard time with the rules that were being put into place at Mike's home. So she decided that she wanted to go back to Wisconsin to live with Marie and Jim, which is not something that Mike took lightly. He of course did not want her to move, but he knew that Sarah wanted to do this and one way or another she was going to figure out a way to move back home so he did let her move back home, which I cannot imagine was an easy decision for him. So Sarah ended up going back home to Wisconsin with Marie and Jim and the step brothers while Leslie stayed behind in Colorado with Mike. Mike very much thought that the move would maybe be good for her thought that maybe she would get into less trouble and thought that maybe everything would turn out okay if she moved back. The person who had sexually assaulted her was no longer living at the Lambert residence and would no longer be a threat. So in the spring of 1995 Sarah returned back home to Wisconsin. Now remember the family home had burned and they never repaired it so they were living for people in this tiny garage apartment to story situation there was not a lot of room and there wasn't any room for Sarah. So Sarah ended up having to share a room with the room that Jim used as his office and also used to store his guns and hunting equipment and the family also used her for storage. So she didn't have her own personal space in this home and she really also didn't like Jim. He was really not like her cup of tea. I don't think he was really anyone's cup of tea. We'll get into it. But it didn't have a door on it. She had no privacy whatsoever living in this tiny cramped garage apartment with now five people and also Marie, the mother was also more of like a friend than a mother to Sarah. Now one could argue she left her father's house because the rules were too strict and now she's living in a situation where her mother is offering her marijuana at 14 years old and wanting to smoke it with her. We go from having a ton of rules to having seemingly no rules. Hindsight is 2020 the grass ain't always greener on the other side but Sarah is a child at this point and she really doesn't know any better. She is doing her best to try to navigate her life. She's been moved around multiple different times dealt with sexual abuse as a young girl. Sarah at this point is just trying to survive and find her place in the world. So at this point in time, Sarah is getting ready to start her freshman year of high school and David is 19 years old. He started a logging company with his dad Jim so they are working very closely. So Sarah goes into officially her freshman year of high school. It is 1995 and she is of course the new girl in town. No one remembers her from all those years ago, but she luckily was able to find a group of friends that were willing to take her under their wing. Although most of them were older, they were a pretty solid group of friends for her. In this group, she also met a guy who would become her boyfriend. He was 21 years old and his name was Travis Lane. Now Sarah was 15 years old at this point in time and she is dating this Travis guy who is 21. He is a sophomore in college. All sorts of wrong, not okay in any way shape or form for a 21 year old to be dating a 15 year old, but that is not the point of the story. They had a fairly good relationship. They seem to really get along and enjoy each other's company. But once Marie and Jim found out that Sarah was dating a 21 year old, they were super mad and basically forbid Sarah from ever seeing Travis again. In December of 1995, Jim found and read Sarah's diary while she wasn't home, which is a huge invasion of privacy. First of all, she's not your daughter. Second of all, you're sharing a space with her does not give you the right to go through her stuff and read her personal thoughts and feelings and read her diary. So this is December of 1995 when Jim reads this diary and in reading this diary, he finds out that Sarah is pregnant and was hiding it from Jim and from Marie. So they of course were livid and mad and they ended up grounding her and said she wasn't allowed to leave the house except to go to school and then they planned a abortion for Sarah. Despite the fact that Sarah said that she wanted to keep the baby, they wanted absolutely no part of that. So in February of 1996, Sarah was taken to the clinic to abort her baby and Jim in all of this thought that going after Travis and telling him that he owed Jim and Marie money for this abortion and were threatening him with you need to pay me back for this abortion. This is all your fault. When Sarah didn't even want the abortion to begin with and also you have bigger fish to fry if this 21 year old man got your 15 year old stepdaughter pregnant. The biggest concern should not be the money that you had to pay for her to get this abortion. It should be the well being of your stepdaughter and how she is going to mentally cope with not only being sexually abused allegedly by one of your kids. But now she's had a pregnancy and an abortion forced upon her. What the actual heck is going on in Lambert house guys. Sarah did not listen to her parents as far as not seeing Travis and she would often skip school or see him at lunch time. He was older. He had a car. So her seeing him was not really out of the question. She was able to see him when she wanted and she saw him frequently. They were still in a relationship at this point in time. So remember, they found out about the pregnancy in December. Her abortion was in February and now we are in March of 1996. She is still grounded. And at this point in time, she kind of toys with the idea of going and living back with her father. Of course, the grass isn't always greener on the other side and she really thought that she wanted to go back and live with Mike. She brought this up to her grandmother, but she was really unsure that Mike would even want her back. But her grandmother assured her just have this conversation with your dad and he will gladly take you back. However, she never really gets the chance to bring this up to Mike. This was just a thought that entered her mind, but it never even came to fruition because April of 1996 is where everything starts to go majorly downhill for Sarah, and it leads to her disappearance. So this is the most convoluted, complex, crazy town part of the story. I'm going to do my best to try to explain this and make it make sense because there is a lot of information here guys and there's a lot of other people involved and it's a lot I'm overwhelmed. So April, 1996, Jim has a friend named Brian Bose over and the plan was for Brian to come over. He was going to spend the night at the Lambert residence. And then the next day, him and Jim were going to go travel to see some friends out of state. Okay. Now Brian apparently is a shady character and not the best guy and would allegedly rub off on Jim and Jim would also act like a shady character, although I think Jim was a shady character on his own, in my opinion. And just to put it a little bit in perspective, Jim had broken several hunting and fishing laws, as well as being suspected on some insurance scams, including the one that happened with the fire that burned his house down years earlier. Allegedly, it was arson to get the insurance money. So Jim Lambert is not the biggest, nicest, best human in the world. He's not, we're not going to pretend that he is. But I guess when this Brian character who's from Canada is around, they're just feeding off of each other and doing probably not the best of things allegedly. So we are now on April 3 of 1996. So this was the day before spring break was to start. And this was officially the day that Marie and Jim had decided that Sarah's grounding was going to be lifted. So on this particular day, Sarah had plans to go visit a friend before school, and then they would walk to school together, spend the day at school, and then they would go to this girl's house after school. So Jim and Brian left that morning for their trip, and Marie was also out of town at a funeral. So Marie was not there that night into the next morning. And for whatever reason, Brian had made an observation that Sarah was acting weird that morning. Now Brian was in and out a lot. He didn't really spend a lot of time necessarily with Sarah to know that she was quote, unquote, acting weird. Brian C. Crest here. When you have a busy schedule, it's important to maximize your downtime. One of the best ways to do that is by going to Chumba Casino.com. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino games, like spin slots, bingo, and solitaire that you can play for free for a chance to redeem some serious prizes. So hop on to Chumba Casino.com now and live the Chumba life sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary VGW group void where prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply. We're going to get to that again in a little bit because I want to go over some Facebook things in a little while. Maybe in part two, I'm not really sure. Dean, one of the stepbrothers had agreed to give Sarah a ride to her friend's house, and he ended up dropping her off. And then they walked to school as planned. Around 12, Travis comes to the school, picks up Sarah, they go to lunch, and then Sarah returned back to school. Now, whatever happened in between the morning and this afternoon when Sarah returned to school, something in her had changed. She was very concerned about getting home to get her diary because she did not want Jim to have access to her diary. Now, keep in mind, Jim was supposed to be gone on this trip with his friend Brian, but something happened in that day. We do not know the information as to what happened, what was told to Sarah that made her so urgently want to get home to get her diary. But regardless of that, she asked a neighbor at school if they could give her a ride home, and then she would go home, get what she needed, and then go back to her friend's house. That was the plan earlier. Now, the friend is the one that said she wanted to go home to get her diary. That is what she was super focused on, super concerned about, and was very scared that Jim would take her diary again and find more reasons to punish her. And her friend is the one that said that her attitude had changed so much from that morning to the afternoon. So, Sarah was not able to get a ride with the neighbor, so she ended up taking the school bus. And she ended up sitting with a friend, and she made plans with this friend for Easter that they were going to hang out and spend some time together. So, this is a girl that is very much focused on her life. She is making plans for the future, and she just wants to get her diary and go back to her friend's house. That is her whole MO with this whole thing. So, the bus ends up dropping Sarah off at the end of the driveway. Remember, it is a long walk from the end of the driveway to the Lambert home. So, her friend watched Sarah get off the bus, and they saw a dark colored pickup truck pull up behind the bus. And the friend saw Sarah walk over to the pickup truck, and it seemed like whoever was in this pickup truck was a familiar person to Sarah. She was talking with them, engaging with them, and they thought that it might have been somebody that she had previously dated named Steve. But then there was another student on the bus who said that they actually saw Sarah get into the passenger seat of the truck, and then a neighbor of Sarah's also gives a witness account because he is waiting for the school bus to pass. He has stopped, and he sees the pickup truck and thought that that truck belongs to Travis Lane's dad. And they also, this neighbor, thought that he saw three people in the truck. And then another student had said that was on the bus that Travis would often wait for Sarah in her driveway. And everyone just kind of assumed that whoever was in this pickup truck had to do with Travis and that it was someone Sarah knew, and they didn't think anything about it. There is a lot of different eyewitness accounts, and they all saw different things. One saw them talking to Sarah. One saw Sarah get in the truck. One saw one thing. One saw another. The color of the pickup truck varies. There's a lot of different accounts, and they all very much contradict each other. So we really don't know much else about this pickup truck other than Sarah was seen talking to this person allegedly after she got off the bus. Now David Lambert was the only person at home at this time. And unfortunately that was the last time that Sarah was seen literally like she vanished into thin air. So David, about an hour later, called Jim, and now remember Jim is out of town with Brian allegedly and says Sarah did not come home from school. So Jim ended up calling Marie and basically said, Hey, Sarah's missing. You need to try to figure out what's going on. Now Marie is out of town for a funeral. So she's not home. Jim's not home. And Marie leaves and comes back home trying to figure out what's going on. She attempted to call Sarah had no luck getting ahold of her. She was trying to contact different people that she thought might know where Sarah was, and nobody had any information for her to go on other than what we had previously talked about with her being at school and then her seeing Travis, which Marie didn't know that she was still seeing Travis. So that became a thing. So Marie ended up going to the friends house that Sarah had been out earlier in the day. And this friend and her mom described Marie as being very frantic. Neither one of them, of course, had seen Sarah since earlier in that day. The friend said, you know, she's still in contact with Travis. I know Travis saw her at lunch. Let's go talk to Travis. And they went and talk to Travis. He said, I haven't seen her since noon since I dropped her back off at school. And they also went to Travis's dad's home because again, we think that Travis's dad's truck might have been at the scene where she was last seen. But Travis's dad was in jail at this time on drug charges. So Travis's dad couldn't have been the one who was there that day behind the bus in the random pickup truck. So after this, Marie ends up going back home and she's trying to talk to more of Sarah's friends. And there were friends that confirmed seeing Sarah get off the bus. They were, she was talking to somebody in a pickup truck. And again, we have all these different contradicting statements. So Marie, then again, calls Jim is expressing how concerned she is, but he says he's not going to come home. He's going to stay out of town with Brian. And at this point, Marie still has not contacted the authorities. Her 15 year old is allegedly missing and no authorities have been contacted. Okay. We are now on April 4th. This is the next day. Jim called that morning and said that they were going to be coming home and they ended up doing a little like detour to buy some gunpowder, which I don't really feel like is important when your stepdaughter is allegedly missing, but I digress. Jim eventually makes it home around noon and he said that he really didn't think Sarah's disappearance was that big of a deal. He thought that Sarah was enjoying her newfound freedom because she had just gotten ungrounded, and that she was just off enjoying herself. But eventually, Marie and Jim finally go and report Sarah missing, but they report her. I don't know if they reported her or it was just the authorities. They reported her as missing as a runaway. So automatically you slap runaway on to a missing child case, and it automatically doesn't become as important, even though she was 15. It's dangerous for her to be a runaway, even if she is a runaway. It's still dangerous. She's a child. She's out there. She's alone. And she could potentially be in harm's way. The kicker in all of this is Mike Sarah's dad wasn't informed about his daughter being missing until April 6. Now, we know that there's been a lot of back and forth. She's lived with Mike. She's lived with Marie and Jim. She's thought about going back and moving in with Mike. What's the first place you checked as a parent and be your other, the other parents home? Would it might be the first phone call? Hey, Sarah's missing. Is she by any chance with you? Question mark. What was going through their minds? I just have no idea. And poor Mike to not be notified of this. I just do not understand it. Now, despite there being an official report made the Lambert family themselves kept Sarah's disappearance pretty tight lipped. There was an article that was done by the local paper and they talked about Sarah's disappearance. It was released later in April and Marie had basically told the newspaper that she wasn't sure if Sarah was a runaway or if she was adopted. And at this point in time, Leslie, who was living with Mike, is saying that she really didn't feel that there was a sense of urgency from the adults that surrounded her, of course, besides Mike. But she didn't feel any urgency from anyone else to try to figure out what happened to Sarah. But she just trusted that they were doing what they could that the police were investigating Sarah's disappearance and trying to figure out what happened to her. And she really didn't. She was 17. Leslie. She was 17 years old. She didn't know any better than to trust the people around her and what they were telling her in regards to her sister. Police even came out and said that they didn't think that there was any foul play and thought that Sarah had just willingly left on her own and they encouraged her to reach out to her family and let her family know that she was okay. In the following months, things of the Lambert home continue to get worse and worse and worse. Things between David, Dean, and Jim grew very toxic. And six months after Sarah was missing, David ended up moving out of the house while Jim was at work. And then Dean moved out shortly after this, not even a month after David moved out, Dean moved out. And Dean was only 17 years old. And they really didn't keep up with their father following this, at least initially I don't know in the long run if they kept up with their dad or not. I really do not know. But I think we can say one thing for sure is that this Lambert family house was a toxic environment in so many ways. And there was a lot going on behind closed doors that I don't even think half of the people that even knew the Lambert's know about necessarily. It's just, I do not get good vibes from anything that was going on inside of that home. So in August of 1998, Mike is very hopeful that Sarah is going to return home for her 18th birthday. At this point in time, he is very, very hopeful that Sarah did just run away and that she's going to come home. Unfortunately, she did not come home. Police ended up reopening the investigation in July of 1999. And at this point, they said that Sarah was most likely an endangered missing person, which at this point, it is so much after the fact later. And she has been gone all of this time. They ended up doing a search of the Lambert family property and also had searched a trash dump that was on the Lambert property. Jim helped in these searches and nothing is found. In August of 2000, they ended up searching a lake and they find nothing. I don't know why they search this lake if they had been given a clue or a tip that led them there. But regardless, they didn't find anything. In 2011, a cold case team ended up being called in and they go over all of the evidence from front to back, but nothing new was uncovered. In 2013, there is another search that is completed on the Lambert property. This time, they bring in the cadaver dogs, and there is multiple locations that the dogs react to, but again, nothing is found. In February, 2017, there was a reporter that covered the story and ended up featuring interviews with Mike and Leslie. The station also put up a $5,000 reward. In April of 2017, Marie Lambert, Sarah's mom died from COPD. And two months later, Jim Lambert also dies from COPD. Curious, I'm not really sure. A week after Jim's death, there is another search done of the Lambert property, and again, nothing is found. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that they search this property multiple times. They have to have a reason to search this property. What are they looking for? What do they know that we don't know what is going on on this property? It was technically the last place that she was seen, but why do they have such an invested interest in searching the Lambert family property? And like I said, it's vast. 65 acres heavily wooded, a lot of foliage. There is a lot of room on that property to hide some censorship. Let's just say it like it is. I don't know what they were looking for, but regardless in all of those searches, they did not find what they were looking for. At this point in time, the local sheriff's office admits that they really should have done more initially, but the protocol for missing teens wasn't there at the time. And at this point in time, they had a lot of different agencies that were investigating Sarah's disappearance. In 2019, a new lead investigator was appointed to the case, and that is pretty much where things stand today. Leslie and Mike still want answers as to what happened to Sarah. They run a Facebook page called find Sarah Bushland, which we are going to talk about here in a little bit. Leslie very much just wants to know what happened to her sister. She said she doesn't even necessarily want prosecution for whoever harmed her sister. She just wants to know what happened to her. Sarah was last seen wearing a blue jacket, blue jeans, and a Tweety Bird shirt and black rebut sneakers. There are a few theories as to what happened to Sarah, and they all very much stem from this pickup truck and the Lambert property. So the first theory is that Sarah got into this dark colored pickup truck and then something happened to her. Whoever was in that pickup truck had something sinister in mind and they took Sarah against her will. Second theory, Sarah ended up getting into the truck and then ended up coming back home and then something happened to her. And then the third theory is that Sarah never got into the truck, went into the house to retrieve her diary and something happened to her. Leslie did say that she tried to get info from Jim as to what happened to Sarah and he pointed a gun at her and... I'm Victoria Cash and I want to invite you to a place called Lucky Land, where you can play over a hundred social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. So what are you waiting for? The best way to discover your luck is to spin. So go to luckylandslots.com, that's luckylandslots.com, and get lucky today at Lucky Land. No purchase necessary, VGW Group, boy prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions applied. This was obviously before Jim had passed away. This wasn't out of the ordinary for Jim. He was known to point weapons at people all the time, which, like I said, Jim just wasn't a good person. And Leslie did end up getting a hold of Sarah's diary, Marie gave it to her. But when she got the diary, because she was going to try to figure out where could Sarah be, half of the pages had been torn out and were missing from the diary. So what was in that diary that Sarah was so concerned about and did Jim find it and then do something? I don't know. I just can't shake this feeling that this Lambert family property had some really sinister stuff going on behind closed doors. And that Sarah was right smack dab in the middle of it, and she was 15 and she was rebelling and they did not like that. And that is just so horrifying to think that anyone could have harmed her. It probably wasn't a stranger, but we really don't know the answers as to what happened to Sarah that day. She literally just vanished. Now, there's also a rumor that Brian had at one point in time come out and said that, although he and Jim were allegedly on a trip, the day that Sarah went missing, that Jim and Brian weren't together that day. So I don't know what that means. I don't know what Brian's alluding to. I don't know if we can trust Brian. I don't feel like we can. There's so much going on here, guys, and I am very overwhelmed. So that is the story of Sarah and Bushland. We are now going to switch gears. I was going to make this apart too, but I'm just going to keep on keeping on. And we are going to go in and read some of the Facebook postings that are on this fine Sarah Bushland Facebook page because I do feel like they give quite a bit of insight into everything that potentially could have been going on at the time. So this was a post made by the fine Sarah Bushland page October 30 of 2022. I am going to just read it as it is. Sarah Bushland was 15 years old when she went missing in April of 1996. She lived in rural Spooner, Wisconsin. But would sometimes visit the area with her family around the areas of Rainy Lake, Mine Center, and Fort Francis in the Providence of Ontario, Canada. There were some friends of her stepfather Jim Lambert and mother Marie Lambert lived or vacationed. Jim Lambert and local resident Brian boughs were close friends. They spent a lot of time on Rainy Lake and would sometimes visit the Cascade camps resort owned by Bob and Josephine Becker. Brian Bose is seen in the attached photo with Sarah and another young girl. There hasn't been a sign of Sarah since her April 1996 disappearance from the end of the driveway to her home at Spooner. We are exploring all possibilities, including the idea that Sarah may have been taken to Canada. We want to hear from people who knew Jim and Marie Lambert Brian Bose or anyone else who ran in that group that might know something. The smallest piece of information could make a difference. If you know something, say something. Thank you. And then there's this attached picture, which I will put on my Instagram and Facebook pages because I think it's an important picture. It's very odd. Brian is shirtless in seemingly his underwear. There is a gal that he is sitting with and he has her, like his hand around her throat, her hands are over her eyes, and then Sarah is standing behind them. And she just has like this really scared, terrified look on her face. Someone responded on the Facebook page that they knew Jim and Marie very well. I still have many, many questions. I believe most wholeheartedly that the answers died with both of them. And the fine Sarah Bushman page responded saying that they would like to chat with this person. I just don't know. Like, I feel like there is answers here, but I think that they did die with Marie and Jim Lambert. And that is unfortunate. I also believe that Brian has also passed away, so we also don't have the privilege to speak with him and find out what he knows or knew or has to say from around that time. I am now going to read a letter that Leslie wrote to her sister Sarah 23 years. I have anxiety every day that I will forget what you look like your mannerisms, your laugh, the way you would take care of people, how you always put everyone else first your voice. Then I sit here today staring at a picture of what you may look like. I see me, my children and our parents all wrapped into one picture. I see your eyes shine through your picture reminds me of a piece of each of those people, just like the mystery of your disappearance is just pieces. We need help putting the pieces together. We are not complete without knowing where you are, if you are safe, if you're in the arms of Jesus. I think about the artists who came up with this picture and without them being able to see everyone that loves you, your story couldn't be told. Now, if only we could put the clues together to help tell your complete story. I often say that experiences in my life make me who I am today, but this would be the one thing that I would go back and make sure never happened. I know I don't have that power now, but I will make sure that I don't stand idle when I see things that are wrong. No child ever deserves to be treated the way that you were in that house. As a society, we have to stop failing each other. This is my promise to you. I will not give up love you. You're big sis Leslie. So that is a letter in regards to the H progress photo that they released of Sarah, and I will be sure to post that as well on the Instagram and Facebook pages. There is also a book that talks about all the background of the family, Sarah Bushland's disappearance. It is called searching for Sarah Bushland. It is free and there is a PDF that is available in the Facebook group that I have been talking about. So I will be sure to share the link of the Facebook group as well. So if you want to access the free book, you can, because it is a rabbit hole. Let me tell you. So the last post I want to share is one that was done by a guy named Robert Dudley, and I am going to read it from start to finish. Hello everyone. This is Robert Dudley here posting on Sarah's page for the first time, looking over the file. I have on Sarah this morning. It's hard to believe it's only been a little over three years since I learned about Sarah's case. This was posted in 2021. Sarah's disappearance from the end of this driveway on April 3, 1996, and then nothing. There was very little media coverage of her going missing and the general attitude was that she had run away. Well, there remains a possibility that Sarah did run away. We know that's not likely, but what happened to that 15 year old girl? Where is she now? We know that Sarah stepfather Jim Lambert left the house that morning with his Canadian friend Brian to visit someone in Stillwater. They plan to stay overnight, despite the fact that he had not been keeping closed tabs on Sarah and did not trust her. The trip itself had always struck me as a bit unusual for other reasons too, because Jim didn't really know the people who they were going to visit. They were Brian's friends. Also, Jim just wasn't the type of person to go hang out at someone else's house for the day. He worked in Chippewa Falls. He took off to Canada for long weekends. Otherwise, he pretty much stayed at home. That was his routine. We know that Sarah had been a handful for Jim and her mother Marie to deal with in the months before her disappearance. She was pregnant and had an abortion. She was partying, rebelling and talking back. Jim was the man that you didn't want to cross. We all know that Sarah was abused by her stepbrother simply put people in that house had motive to wish Sarah harm. Had Jim had enough. Did he arrange for someone to do something to Sarah while he took off on a strange trip to Stillwater? He was also at odds with his son David Lambert. Did he set David up, knowing he would be the only person around when Sarah came home from school. David was home alone when Sarah stepped off the school bus. It was very likely that he was the last person to see her. Did Jim leave the house to give David an opportunity, maybe even an instruction to harm Sarah? Where was Dean Lambert on the afternoon of April 3, 1996. He doesn't remember. He was not working at the grocery store in Spooner. He did not have any after class activities at school. Did Danny Lambert take an unscheduled leave to come home from his Navy post on the East Coast? We know that he did that from time to time. I would like to hear your information or ideas, especially if you knew Sarah her stepfather or her stepbrothers. It could be the smallest bit of information that leads the way to finding Sarah. You may have that small detail and not even be aware of it. If you know something, please say something. You can message me here or send an email to searching for Sarah Bushland at gmail.com or you can also contact the Washburn County Sheriff's Department. Thanks, Robert M Dudley. And I just think that that is all so freaking mind blowing. And one last comment I'm going to read was from a woman who said on that post that I just read to you. This girl was my very best friend. I've missed her every day to say that the family dynamics were odd as an understatement. I know in my heart, she didn't run away and did did something to her. He was a hot tempered nut bag. We were not allowed to speak above a whisper in the house. Couldn't go for walks outside on the property. Couldn't go see the dogs. We were not allowed to go by the house that was being built right next to theirs. I believe it was meant for Dean. It's been a while might have been another brother. This girl was a great person who got lost and wrapped up looking for the attention she didn't get at home. I miss my duck head. She had a lot of friends, but she was my best friend. I remember our conversation that morning in psych. I remember what she was wearing. I remember how scared she was about something. But we weren't allowed to leave class. And with Jim and Maria, both passed, I feel that there's no answers coming. They have gotten away with it for over 20 years now. It's heartbreaking to think that if the woman she would be today, her children, her fun personality, that things would have, the things we could have painted together so much more awful. Like, I don't know how many people have to come forward and say that they think that there was something sinister going on inside the Lambert house, but there has to have been something sinister going on inside that Lambert house. Things that Sarah was probably keeping secrets from everyone, trying to protect, even though it wasn't her blood family, trying to protect her family, trying to protect her mom, trying to protect herself. We don't know what happened to Sarah. And I think sharing her story is super important as it is with every case I talk about. But this one in particular just really struck a nerve with me because I think that, unfortunately, most of the time when something sinister and that happens to somebody, it's usually by somebody that they know. And it would be so unfortunate and crazy if it really was somebody that was living under the same roof as Sarah that harmed her. And we just have no way of knowing there's never been any evidence that Sarah is no longer alive, but there has also been no sightings of Sarah. We have no evidence or anything to go on as to where Sarah may be. But I do encourage you to read the PDF book, check out the Facebook page. The page seems to be pretty active. I think Leslie is the one who primarily runs it. I know Mike is still fighting for answers is asked to what happened to his daughter, but a lot of the people that were potentially involved in this are no longer living and the answers probably died with them. I do think it's interesting. I read the obituary for Jim and it does talk about Sarah and how she was missing in his obituary and it asks for people if they have information to come forward. So I thought that that was a nice gesture and interesting little tidbit of information that was put into his obituary. So that is Sarah's story, it is of the utmost importance that we do share, of course, like I always say, share this episode, share the Instagram and Facebook posts that I make in regards to this episode with the pictures that I'm going to share. There's really somebody out there know something and is willing to come forward and share what they know, because her family deserves answers, her father deserves answers, her sister Leslie deserve answers as to what happened to Sarah. I appreciate you guys. I'm also shocked that this made it into one part episode because I was fully prepared to do two, but I made it 45 minutes and I made it one of my longer episodes to date but we're going to go with it. Thank you guys for listening and please please please share Sarah story and let's spread the word about her disappearance and hopefully get some resolution for her family. I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend and I will see you on Monday for a brand new unsolved cold case. Bye. Right then guys, welcome to let's talk about my name is Liam and my name is Billy. Every Sunday, we will be here to bring you episodes about all things weird, scary and spooky. We cover everything from ghosts, aliens, surviving a zombie apocalypse, true crime, we even spoken about talking mongoes, no topic is off limits. Hey, don't you two be forgetting about us? No, of course, there's no chance of forgetting about you two is there. How's that experiment going? Mind your own business. Sorry, Igor. We've both actually been writing some scary stories of our own for terrifying tales. If you and your master want to read them, we don't need your help, you stupid worthless pair of. Anyway, so this is let's talk about you can listen every Sunday, 7 a.m. UK time. And the last Sunday of every month, you'll hear from the delightful pair, Igor and his master over at Terrify and Tales. It's time for today's Lucky Land horoscope with Victoria Cash. 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