The Long November | Chapter 1

Listener discretion is advised.

On November 2nd, 2007, 18 year old Justin Gaines walked out of a popular club in Duluth, Georgia, just northwest of Atlanta.

In the early morning hours, he was spotted climbing into a car with a young woman and was never seen again.

Despite dozens of volunteers searching, flyers hanging on local businesses,

extensive news coverage, and even the Georgia National Guard lending their services, there was no trace of Justin Gaines.

He had seemingly vanished.

There were no answers to explain his disappearance, and the case eventually went cold.

Eight years later, that would all change.

A new lead gave investigators insight into what happened to Justin that night, and this story would take a sinister turn.

So they wrap him up in a paint tarp.

and haul him away.

The disappearance of Justin Gaines takes a gruesome turn as law enforcement sources reveal new details in what they're now calling a murder investigation.

A detailed confession alleged that Justin Gaines was robbed and murdered, and that his body was dumped in nearby Lake Lanier.

When Justin's body resurfaced days later, he was moved, stuffed into a large metal box, and thrown down a well.

A suspect confessed to exactly what happened to Justin Gaines and named everyone who was involved in his death.

He took that earring out of Justin's ear the night that he was killed.

We don't have any physical evidence of death.

We don't have a mass of blood. We don't have a

murder weapon. We don't have fingerprints.

When you've got more than two people, somebody's eventually going to talk, and there are a lot of people in this.

I'm here to get people talking.

No matter how you dress it up or make it look, I never killed that boy.

There's a lot of things that people don't know.

Georgia in the fall is beautiful.

Even in early November, temperatures often hang right around a comfortable 60 to 65 degrees,

and the leaves have begun by this point to change to shades of crimson, yellowish gold, and orange

as they fall and cover the sidewalks and yards in a blanket of color.

Justin Gaines and a few friends lived together just off the Oconee campus of Gainesville State College in Athens.

In 2007, Justin was a freshman, and this was the first time he'd lived away from his parents.

As any college freshman is, Justin was full of hope and excitement,

even if he hadn't quite figured out what it was he wanted to do with his life.

On the afternoon of Thursday, November 1st, he made the hour-long drive to his parents' home in Snellville, Georgia

to change clothes and hang out with his siblings and his folks before going out that night.

His mother, Erica, and stepfather, Stephen Wilson, still kept his bedroom just the way it was before he moved out,

because he sometimes came home from school to stay for the weekend.

But also, I think, just in case, he disappeared into his old room

and picked out the clothes he would wear out that night, the last outfit he would ever wear.

He would decide, with Stephen's approving eye, on a gray Abercrombie shirt, stylishly ripped jeans, and tennis shoes.

Justin was never shy about getting a second opinion on something, especially on how he looked.

Mom, do you think I should move into this place? This is what I'm looking to do for college.

Applied for this. I mean, he always asked for opinion.

And, I mean, he walked in and he was like to my husband,

Hey, Stephen, what shirt should I wear tonight for the ladies?

I remember my husband saying, you know, wear that shirt, it'll go with your blue eyes.

Don't wear that brown shirt. It'd look like shit.

A huge diamond earring that never strayed far from his left ear.

He liked the way it looked, but it also said, I've got style and money.

It was cubic zirconium, but who could tell?

Justin was all about his image.

He worked out all the time and his bright blue eyes complimented his baby face.

His friends called him Gaines or sometimes Gainsta.

That was more of a nickname he seemed to try and implement himself.

His friends just went along with it.

He grabbed some cash and left his wallet behind in the bedroom.

On his way out, Stephen asked Justin if he wanted to make a few extra bucks over the weekend.

Something he did from time to time to earn extra cash.

Justin said, sure.

We'd pay him $150 per house.

Justin loved money. He loved working.

So he was also coming home for that.

He came in, talked to all his siblings, asked what to wear.

We hung out for about an hour and a half and then his friend Chris picked him up and took him out to Wild Bill's.

Though she loves to talk about her son, when I first sat down with her,

I could tell that the energy in the room had changed a bit as soon as she mentioned Wild Bill's.

Wild Bill's was a huge club.

It actually had one of the largest dance floors in the Southeast at the time.

They held 18 and up nights each week to appeal to the younger crowd.

Eventually, everyone of a certain age seemed to make their way through Wild Bill's front doors.

It's also the last place Justin was seen.

And it was Thirsty Thursday. 21 to drink, 18 to party.

He would go up there a lot on Thursdays.

That night he was there, there was probably over 3,000 people.

Most clubs in or near college towns have them.

The drinks are cheap, there are tons of people,

and everyone is there looking to have a good time.

To blow off steam from a hard week at school.

And if you're looking for it, there are plenty of people willing to hook up for the night.

Chris, one of Justin's roommates at school, picked him up sometime between 6 and 7 p.m.

Justin knew he'd be drinking that night, so he opted to leave his car in his parents' driveway.

First place they stopped was Quick Trip at the top of our street,

because Justin had worked there for many years.

They would use bottles of Gatorade or a similar drink and spike it.

That way, they could ride around and drink inconspicuously.

Around the time Justin was nearing his Brookwood High School graduation,

drinking became more of a common pastime for him.

You could even say it was becoming a problem.

But then I realized during his senior year, one day I went to, found him in his room,

and I was like, what are you doing? It's school time.

I thought, man, I smell alcohol.

And he had the band on his arm, and he went to school.

He ended up having to come home because, of course, he said, you know,

oh, they were just having me do mouthwash, but, you know, that was just him lying to Mom.

So I think during his senior year, he was sneaking out or going out somewhere on Thursday nights,

going up to Wild Bill's with a fake ID and drinking.

And he was drinking a lot more than I realized.

And I'd always tell him, no, beer's bad, beer's bad.

And, I mean, I remember him being four years old, and I'd pull up to a convenience store,

and there'd be a Budweiser on the window. He'd be like, no, Mom, you can't go there.

So I'm not sure if he was open with me because he knows I had a bad experience with alcohol.

I still think about that.

Maybe he never really told me about his drinking because he knew how bad I hated it because of his father and what I experienced.

where police found him passed out in his car alongside a bottle of vodka.

He was scheduled to appear in court a few weeks after his disappearance,

and Erica tells me that he had a lawyer and was prepared to face the music, whatever that might mean for him.

It was likely just a small fine and at most a few hours of community service.

But that night, Justin and his friends went cruising for a while,

after dropping by the Kwik Trip, stopping at a local pool hall nearby, and pre-gaming in the parking lot.

And Justin's cheap. Justin's cheap.

He was probably going to see if some girls would buy him drinks, maybe. Who knows?

So that's why I believe he drank before he even went in there.

So I don't think he had a ton of money on him.

more than four and a half hours after leaving his parents' house.

And him, Chris, and Chris' girlfriend at the time went into line.

Justin did use a fake ID to get in that night. He was in the 21 and older lane.

And Chris and his girlfriend were in the 18 to 20 lane.

And then when they get up to the main thing, Justin gives them his pass. They let him in.

Chris and his girlfriend passed and didn't get him in.

And Chris and his girlfriend at that point leave Wild Bills.

Justin says, oh, don't worry. I'll find a way home.

because they couldn't get into the VIP area with Justin,

who had assured them that he'd find a ride home later that night.

Justin danced and mingled inside the club,

and at some point seemed to get into an altercation with an unidentified male.

It was allegedly over dancing with a girl. It's not really clear.

But there wasn't a fight.

Erica tells me what she's been able to piece together regarding this,

as it's the first time I've heard any semblance of motive for her son's disappearance.

and Justin went over and said, hey, buddy, you don't treat women like that.

And the guy said, just go away, get away,

and that they were supposedly eyeing Justin the whole night.

So that is where the fight, you know, confrontation is supposed to have taken place.

He had his fake ID, but he also knew several of the bartenders who would serve him,

knowing that he was underage.

Someone he went to school with there was one of the bartenders,

and she made it seem to me that he wasn't really drunk.

There was another older lady, and she also said that Justin seemed fine,

but I mean, they also knew Justin was underage, and they were serving him all night.

Because the one girl went to school with Justin, so she knew.

So I've heard, you know, conflicting things.

and by 1.30 a.m., he was seen outside the front of the club looking at his phone.

He repeatedly texted and called nearly a dozen friends,

a total of 24 times, to come pick him up,

but with no luck because few answered,

and everyone else had work or class in just a few hours.

They just chalked it up to Justin being Justin, he'll figure it out.

And Justin did have cash on him,

but it's unclear as to why he didn't call a taxi at this point,

when he was seemingly out of options.

He never called his parents,

something Erica still can't understand or seem to get past.

when he made hundreds of phone calls, you know, tons of phone calls and texts,

but not once to us.

Maybe it's because he knew how much I hated alcohol.

And I worried about him drinking and being like a biological father.

That's how I look at it, you know, he didn't want to disappoint us,

but I would never be disappointed in any of my children.

along with everyone else who's ever known him,

have not seen or heard from Justin Gaines since.

He simply vanished.

At first, Erica didn't think much of the fact that she hadn't heard from Justin

when she woke up the next day.

I mean, after all, he was a college kid now, and he had his own life.

He was pretty responsible, for the most part,

and she would see him on Saturday when he stopped by

to meet her husband, Steven, to clean the gutters.

Justin had told us that he'd be home on Saturday morning

so he can go clean the gutters and do the job to make money.

So I didn't expect him home Friday night.

So, you know, nothing, you know, Justin went out Thursdays with his friends,

it's with Chris, you know, Friday, it's all good.

the worry immediately began to set in.

This wasn't like Justin.

Justin doesn't miss an opportunity to make money.

So I said to my husband, I said, something's wrong, something's wrong.

He's like, honey, he's probably just, you know,

he'll probably clean the gutters tomorrow.

I'm like, no, baby, you know, he has, you know, two days of work lined up.

Something's wrong. And he's like, everything's okay.

You know, don't worry. You know, he's 18.

He's probably, you know, you know, maybe met a girl or something.

You know, it's okay.

He's not answering his phone because now I'm the mom.

And why aren't you working?

You're supposed to be making this money for college, you know.

And he's not answering my phone.

It was going straight to voicemail.

So I couldn't get a hold of him.

And I'm, I'm upset.

But when they still hadn't heard from Justin by Sunday morning,

it was apparent that something was definitely wrong.

I told him, he's, now my husband's like, oh.

So I start calling Justin's friends.

Back then it was MySpace.

So got on one of my kids' MySpace,

and I start messaging Justin's friends and calling his friends.

And, you know, they're like, oh, no, Justin's fine.

You know, we haven't heard from him, but, you know, we're sure you're fine.

He's fine.

And of course he has to go back to Athens before Monday for school.

even taking to social media to try and track him down.

But she had no luck.

And everyone kept telling her not to worry.

Justin's probably fine.

But sometimes, a mother just knows.

I'm calling his old girlfriend because they were very close still,

and no one's heard from him, and they're all saying it's okay.

And then late Sunday night, I get a phone call from all his friends.

It's like 15 people on the phone, and they're like,

something's wrong, we can't find Justin.

You know, Chris was expecting Justin to pick him back up.

His car's sitting in my yard, so I know he's not there.

And his friends all call, and they said,

something's wrong, we can't find Justin.

but her entire world was about to come crashing down around her.

But everyone assured me he was okay.

Everyone messaged, don't worry, gangster's fine.

He's out there, he's probably fine, don't worry about it.

And then on Sunday night,

I mean, there's just tons of these kids on this call,

and they're just all freaking out, saying, you know,

something's wrong, they can't find him.

But my mom got, on Saturday, because he wasn't there,

just told me something's wrong.

So on Sunday night, I reported him missing.

to file a missing persons report.

Officers arrived at the Wilson home to take the report,

but they didn't seem to take her son's disappearance very seriously,

at first.

most people come back in a few, you know, in so many hours,

it's not really necessary.

But then this guy goes home and tells his wife,

who posts on social media,

oh my God, my husband just took a report,

and he has a really bad feeling about this one.

He's at my house, you know, telling me,

oh, don't worry, you know, most, you know,

missing people come back and forth.

They're just sowing their oats, I think was his exact words.

He's probably just sowing some oats.

They didn't even turn it in right away,

or make it urgent or anything, you know.

But then he goes home and tells his wife, you know,

that he has a bad feeling.

And then me, as his mom, I have to read that.

It no longer exists, but at the time,

it was a heavily visited site,

and Erica immediately began using it as a blog

to post information about Justin,

and to ask for help finding him from the community.

She also posted her contact information on the site.

There were so many posts about Justin Gaines

that Gwinnett Scan actually gave the thread its own page.

Thousands of people were communicating with each other,

and directly with Erica.

There were thoughts and prayers offered,

and even a few tips began to come in.

But while some of the information seemed promising,

some things Erica read and heard were just plain cruel.

and then they chipped his body away,

and you'll never find it.

The very first one was that they put Justin through a wood chipper,

and you would never find his body.

It was just some horrible things.

I was, I just started running outside,

screaming, hitting the house.

My husband's like, what's wrong, what's wrong?

I'm like, oh my God, they're telling me I'd never,

you know, and I just lost it.

I couldn't process it.

My neighbors probably thought I was crazy,

because I literally was just running outside,

screaming, screaming, because, I mean,

it just pushed me over the edge, here and there.

while at their lowest point.

and we'll get you pictures of your son if you send us money.

I mean, some people are telling you what they've heard,

but other people are just cruel.

that he had helped Justin get a fake ID

to cross over the Mexican border from Texas.

I could get an ID there from Texas,

and then, you know, I got all this issue

with the security man, the security,

the investigation was officially underway.

Justin's friends and volunteers in the community

rallied together and began passing out flyers,

knocking on doors,

and forming impromptu search parties.

Some friends still held out hope at first

that Justin had just decided

to go off the grid for a few days

and would turn up fine,

or had even fled the state

to avoid the upcoming court date

for his underage drinking arrest.

Though I think, honestly,

that was just their coping mechanism of choice,

refusing to believe the voice

in the back of their head

telling them this likely wouldn't end well.

As time passed,

hope turned to heartbreak and despair.

basically hopeless

and the answer, most likely,

is, you know,

he's either running from the law,

he's trying to lay low

to avoid getting in trouble for something,

or, you know,

as more time passed,

obviously the confidence

in him being passed out on someone's couch

somewhere dropped pretty substantially.

After that, it was, you know,

something bad happened.

since their sophomore year of high school.

They initially bonded

I had never talked to him previously

and he said something to the effect of

the teacher's in the middle of teaching

and he yelled across the classroom

and he was, hey Heiser,

you want to play poker this weekend?

You know, that was the start of the friendship.

Met up that weekend, played poker,

me, him, and a few other buddies

and that's how it started

was just us sitting around, you know,

playing $10 cash games of poker.

for Justin immediately.

This was personal for him

not only because the two were close friends

but also because Justin helped

a young, quiet Mike Heiser

come out of his shell a bit,

something that made a huge impact on him.

my whole high school experience from there

because I became, you know,

you are the sum of the five people

that you spend the most time with

so then I became a little bit more outgoing.

I became a little bit more of a class clown

and high school became much more enjoyable

and, you know, I was able

to learn how to make new friends.

By nature, I'm actually very introverted.

Justin helped me to break out of that shell.

in the early search parties

and tells me what it was like.

that were the high school friends.

A lot of us when we first came there

thought we were going to find him,

like almost immediately.

We thought we were going to find him

in, oh, he tried to walk,

he's on the side of the road,

he's in a gully, he's hurt,

like we don't know what's going on.

First, like, five days were like gut-wrenching.

I mean, we're searching until

two or three o'clock in the morning every night

and it was traced back

where he would go if he got a ride, right?

We search, we search, we search,

we search, we search.

And you cross off all these X's,

places where you think he could be.

But both of the Heiser brothers said

that the searches seemed unorganized

and at times, almost pointless.

at Wild Bill's and then, you know,

basically sprawled out.

And then another one that felt like

it was just a wild goose chase

that felt totally unorganized

as opposed to like searching in like grid sections

or how you search for someone is

you create a grid, then you go search

in each spot in that grid

whereas, you know, this felt like

we were just driving out to a spot,

basically, and glancing around

for anything suspicious.

And it was like, this feels disorganized.

constantly updated on the case

and word of Justin Gaines vanishing

seemed to spread everywhere.

Erica and Steven pleaded for anyone

with information to come forward.

They didn't care who was responsible.

They just wanted their son home safe.

They wondered if he was hurt.

If he was cold.

If he was hungry.

of other homicide victims.

The mothers are concerned

that their son or daughter

is not getting enough to eat

or that they're cold.

I thought that was odd

to have a commonality of cases like that

where the mothers are concerned about that.

since the early 70s.

my PI work was handling

only major felonies.

The seven deadly sins,

as I call them,

murder, aggravated assault,

rape, child molestation,

you know, what have you.

made news headlines,

Bob Pulno serendipitously caught

a broadcast covering

one of the search parties.

Bob wasn't supposed to be home that day.

He should not have seen

Justin's picture on TV.

But that would prove

to be a pivotal moment

in the Justin Gaines case.

to get some paperwork

that I needed

for a couple of people

I needed to interview in Duluth that day.

Those papers I had forgotten

to take early that morning.

I looked at the TV

as I was passing by

to get to my desk

and it had Justin Gaines' picture on there.

It had missing

across the TV screen

and I just saw

a short blip of that.

Bob Pulno caught

a breaking news feature

stating that Justin Gaines was missing,

he took notice.

This was the area that Bob lived in.

And by the looks of the search party on TV,

they were going to need

all the help they could get.

of these young people

searching for Justin Gaines

and they were all amassed

in front of Wild Bill's

nightclub parking lot.

And it looked chaotic to me.

It was not organized.

So I just went on

with what I was doing

and grabbed my notes

Bob pulled into Wild Bill's parking lot

after finishing work for the day.

And what he saw

didn't impress him.

and looked at them

kind of running and walking along

and it appeared to be

as disorganized in person

as it was on TV.

the search parties really were,

Bob thought,

well, to know that much.

Bob is a tough,

no-nonsense kind of guy.

He's old school.

He's very good at what he does.

So he found someone

who seemed to be in charge

and kindly offered his help.

and I told him

that I know a man

in Houston, Texas

named Tim Miller

who works for a company

named Texas EcuSearch

that does cases for victims

where I had used Tim Miller

and his company

to search for bodies.

were soon called in

at Bob Pullno's urging.

The rescue team initially began

with searches on horseback

but by now had evolved

to utilizing ground searchers,

side-scan sonar,

ground-penetrating radar,

boats, aircraft, drones, and ATVs.

They had the experience,

and they had found Tim Miller's alley.

He and his team

have performed thousands of searches

in conjunction with law enforcement agencies

all over the country and abroad

and they've been successful

in finding hundreds of missing people,

both alive and dead.

Soon after Tim Miller's team arrived,

Georgia's National Guard came to help as well

and they set up headquarters

at a nearby church.

Justin's mom visited Wild Bill's

every Thursday night.

There were over 3,000 people there

after he went missing

to hand out flyers

and look at people

and just try to, you know,

see if anyone seemed suspicious.

Searching for Justin consumed them.

It became their every waking breath.

They didn't even go to work anymore.

Finding Justin was their job now.

for probably four months.

My husband didn't work.

Every day for four months

we went out looking for Justin.

But, I mean,

because there's not a handbook

about what happens when your kid goes missing.

You know what to do.

it was the same routine.

Wake up, search for Justin,

cry yourself to sleep,

wake up a few hours later

and do it all over again.

For months.

Eventually, the volunteers dwindled

as they went back to work and school.

The rescue team and the National Guard left.

And suddenly,

it was just Erica

and her family.

You have all these people here.

You have guidance.

You finally know what you're doing

or you're going to do something.

And at the end of the week,

you're hoping something.

But at the end of the week,

they're like, oh well.

Of course, at this point

it was going to be Thanksgiving.

You know, it's Thanksgiving and

well, Thanksgiving.

What's the big deal?

My kid's still missing.

But I mean,

you can't expect people to be there all the time.

I mean.

First Thanksgiving,

then Christmas.

No festive decorations.

No urge to give or receive gifts.

Who could care about that?

The Wilson home was no longer

the cheery place it once was

when her sisters were becoming a reality.

That her son might not ever come home again.

Now that the search was all but officially over,

there was no daily task

to keep Erica, Stephen,

and their six other children preoccupied.

The real effects of Justin's disappearance

slowly took hold

and everyone dealt with it differently.

It was a dreadful time

and everyone,

especially his siblings,

felt the weight of Justin's absence.

Some of our kids went to counseling.

Our oldest son was in

Ohio State at the time.

He had a really hard time.

You know, he had to go through counseling and things.

Our one son, Jordan,

is very open and would talk about it all the time.

But I mean, they were all different.

Unfortunately, when Justin went missing,

in the beginning,

I mean, I went in to look for Justin,

but my daughter played sports

and was very involved with my kids.

My kids were my life.

And I stopped,

you know,

made her coach pick her up

and she'd be like,

Mom, please go.

No, I can't go and can't go.

But I mean, I stopped going to their games.

I didn't want to do anything.

I wanted to look for Justin or sleep.

You know, or cry or be Nancy Drew.

I mean, I'd stay on the internet all night.

I mean, I wanted to do anything,

but I,

I'm not the same person I was.

I'll never be.

because he had to not only take care

of the other children and Erica,

but he also had to go back to work,

because with eight mouths to feed,

they needed the money.

because I mean, he was handling,

you know, worried about coming home,

making sure I'm okay,

the kids and everything,

but they're all our kids.

I mean, it's not his, mine, our,

you know, it's all the same, you know,

so he's hurting just as bad as me.

If I look back at it,

I should have been more supportive of him,

because, you know, it's not just poor me,

it was the whole family.

a hollow, empty void wrapped in skin

she no longer recognized in the mirror.

She felt that if she wasn't looking for Justin,

she was somehow failing him.

And because he was never found,

she couldn't even properly mourn him

or say goodbye.

The depression cut slow and deep.

She was spiraling further and further down.

It was all she could do for a while

to even get out of bed.

and just spend the rest of my time

and cry my life away.

But I mean, it's not something you can do.

One day my daughter said something about,

Mommy, this isn't you,

or you always did this with me.

And I was like, no.

And she left that day to go do whatever it was,

softball at the time or basketball.

And something clicked and said,

you know what, Justin wouldn't want this.

You need to get up and focus.

So I try to stay strong now.

And, you know, being in a funk hit, not good.

I mean, that doesn't help anyone.

It doesn't help Justin.

It doesn't help your kids.

It doesn't help your spouse.

Bob was investigating.

He'd managed to get a copy of the security footage

from Wild Bills that night.

The footage gave clues as to Justin's movements

inside and outside the club,

but he was out of view of the camera

when he disappeared.

Bob poured through the footage over and over again,

taking note of who came and went,

what they wore,

and if they were with or even near Justin.

The footage showed Justin dancing,

shaking hands and high-fiving friends,

and making dozens of calls and texts

while looking for a ride.

Then he walked out of view.

There wasn't much to go on.

But fortunately, Bob found a witness

who was willing to talk.

having met him in college.

James was someone who I found

that actually witnessed Justin

with a blonde girl

inside Wild Bills that night,

seated at his table with him.

James saw this same blonde girl

get in the car with Justin Gaines

and two other people

in a black 2006 Dodge Charger

with heavily tinted windows,

shiny paint,

and oversized 22-inch rims

with a Georgia tag.

They got in this car.

There was a male driver

with an unidentified passenger

on the driver's rear.

policed Justin with several other people

in the Wild Bills parking lot

around 2 a.m.,

and he was certain it was Justin

because he spoke to him briefly.

The blonde girl got in the front,

and they drove away,

and James says to Justin

as he rolled down his window

leaving the club,

and he sees him get in this car

and he told me he didn't think

that Justin knew those people he was with

and he'd never seen them before.

So he said,

hey, take care,

see you around at school,

and Justin said,

yeah, it'd be cool,

you know, or something like that,

and he got in the car.

of the first real leads Bob

and the Gwinnett County Police

had to go on,

and it's huge

that they found a mystery blonde girl.

Bob knew how important this lead was

and would not let the case go.

and is a focal point

of the investigation.

The blonde girl, of course, is.

after Justin went missing,

well, that's where I come in.

And for what is maybe the first time

investigators have opened the files

on an active case

to a podcaster,

Walton County Sheriff Joe Chapman,

whose department is primarily handling

Justin's case at this point,

explained his views

on me coming into the fold.

You know, not all in my position

have that viewpoint,

but at this point in time, man,

we've thrown rocks,

we've drugged ropes,

we've dug wells,

done everything you can do,

and here I am getting ready to retire,

and I don't think the one

I just don't think

it will have the attention

that it has right now.

that not everyone was as compelled at first

to open the case files to me,

including the investigator assigned

to Justin's case,

former FBI agent Mike Rising.

hey, these guys with the podcast,

okay, well, you know, Sheriff,

I don't like giving ass,

well, you're going to like it this time.

You're going to talk to this man.

So I was kind of interested

in how that conversation was going to go.

And I know it won't be easy,

but my goal here is simple,

to reinvigorate the case

surrounding the disappearance of Justin Gaines,

but also to find out

if there is information from witnesses

that has not yet come to light,

to find Justin's remains

if he is in fact deceased as believed,

and ultimately to find out

exactly what happened to him

the morning of November 2, 2007.

And after just a few weeks

of looking into this case,

people are talking.

When I began this investigation

in early summer of 2023,

in a Hail Mary attempt,

I wrote a letter

to one of the main suspects in this case,

a man named Dustin Dillon Glass,

who's currently in prison in Georgia

for unrelated charges.

Glass's name has been synonymous

with Justin Gaines for many years now,

and for good reason.

He confessed to taking part

in Justin's murder,

describing it in detail.

Though no one has yet been charged

with Justin's murder,

police believe that Glass is the key

to unlocking the mysterious disappearance

of Justin Gaines.

In my letter,

I asked Glass to speak with me

on the record about Justin,

honestly thinking I'd never hear back from him,

because who the hell am I?

Two weeks later,

I was on the phone with him.

Yeah, man.

So I got your letter, right?

I've sat here

and watched the world

talk bad about me, man.

You want the truth about that?

With you, I'm going to give you

all the way the truth.

When you hear everything

Drowning Creek

is an original production of Waveland.

I wrote and created the series

and the original score.

Executive producer is Jason Hoke.

Associate producer is Leo Culp.

Sound engineering by Shane Freeman.

Special thanks to Erica Wilson

and her family.

If you have any leads on this case,

please contact me at info at seankipe.com,

and if you love the series,

please leave a review

and tell your friends.

Follow Waveland on Instagram

at Waveland Media

for more on this series

and upcoming new shows,

and you can also find me on social media

at seankipeofficial or at seankipe.com.

As always, thanks for listening.