Public Radio for Northeast Texas

Buried Episode 02: Nineteen Years And Counting

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"She's right there," hitchhiker Stacey said to Glenn, pointing toward a property along State Highway 276 in Quinlan.
Brittany Gryder

After two years without help from the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office, Carey Mae Parker’s family launches its own investigation. 

Carey’s sister Patricia finds Stacey, the woman who claimed to know where someone buried Carey. In letters from prison, Stacey offers to help and draws a map of Carey’s ex-boyfriend’s family property. She doesn’t accuse the ex-boyfriend of involvement, but Patricia thinks Stacey knows more than she’s letting on. 

Carey poses with her children and then boyfriend Cody.
Credit Courtesy of Brian Parker

At the same time, Carey’s second child Brandy contacts the Texas Department of Public Safety to intervene with the sheriff’s office.

A Texas Ranger discovers that Carey’s name isn’t in the Missing Person’s Clearinghouse. Her sisters spend months trying to submit DNA to Hunt County. Eventually, they give up.  

Patricia, meanwhile, declines an investigator’s request to undergo a controversial investigative technique called forensic hypnosis. In response, the detective threatens to stop investigating Carey’s disappearance.

Cognitive psychologist Art Markman explains why hypnosis is unlikely to clarify anything.  

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George Hale is a radio reporter for KETR and the host of its investigative podcast Buried.