Episode 1: Unknown Woman 1987

TONYA (host):

When the cops don’t listen, a reporter is the next best thing. I learned that very early in my career as a journalist. People come to me for help to solve all sorts of things. To understand an issue, right a wrong, expose a fraud or find a person who has vanished without a trace.

And without being overly sentimental, there’s so much power in having your story told to millions of people on TV or the radio. It says, “What happened to me matters, because I matter.”

Which is why the stories that haunt me the most are the ones about people who have been begging, sometimes for years, to be heard. Like the families of missing people. The ones we hear about are just a fraction of the thousands who disappear every single day.

[distorted sound of a channel turning]

ARCHIVAL VIDEO: THIS IS WHERE DOGS LOST KATIE’S SCENT, AS YOU CAN SEE, IT’S ABOUT 100 YARDS AWAY FROM THE DOLLAR GENERAL. THIS IS ALSO WHERE AUTHORITIES BELIEVE KATIE…

That was me in 2004, reporting on the case of a missing girl from Louisville, Kentucky. I was just a few years out of college, and this was one of my very first TV jobs.

But it was a phone call I received the first week I started, that would turn out to be one of the most important stories of my life.

ANTONIO: I'LL TELL YOU IN THAT MOMENT, I JUST

REMEMBER WHEN YOU ANSWERED THE PHONE, I JUST KIND OF REMEMBER YOU SAYING HELLO. [laughs] I WAS LIKE, OH, WOW. LIKE YOUR VOICE, IT WAS SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR VOICE THAT WAS SO FAMILIAR TO ME.

He said, “My name is Antonio, and I am your nephew.”

Now, this was crazy, because I grew up with a baby brother and he couldn’t possibly have a son because he was just 12 years old at the time of this phone call. I honestly thought this guy had the wrong Tonya.

Until he said, “Your father gave me your number.”

ANTONIO: YOU KNOW I JUST REMEMBER HE WAS ADAMANT ABOUT US TALKING.

I barely knew my father. Just a few years before this phone call in 2004, he and I had connected for only the second time in my life - and I certainly didn’t know his other children.

So as I listened to Antonio speak, a surge of adrenaline ran through me. His mother, I’d learn, was my father’s eldest daughter.

Was it finally happening?

Was I going to finally get to know the mystery that has always been the other side of my family?

The other side of me?

[music]

I’d left Detroit a long time ago to embark on a career as a journalist. But the truth is - I’d also left Detroit because of a broken heart. My family chose Motown during the Great Migration because of its promise of middle-class prosperity. And here I was decades later, a nomad, believing that dream could never be fulfilled for me if I stayed.

Antonio dropped the next revelation just as my mind began to spiral.

Not only was his mother my sister, she was also missing. And this call was a plea - one of many he’d made over the years. In the search for his mother and the other side of himself.

TONYA: WHAT WERE YOU SEARCHING FOR WHEN YOU CONTACTED ME?

ANTONIO: MY AUNT. YOU, YOU KNOW? AND IT WAS JUST CRAZY BECAUSE, UM, THE MORE I REALIZED WHO YOU WERE, THE MORE I JUST KNEW, LIKE, THAT YOU KNEW WHO I WAS. LIKE, IF WE COULD GET TO THAT LEVEL OF CONVERSATION, THAT WE PROBABLY WOULD BOTH DISCOVER, UM, SOMETHING NEW.

TONYA: OURSELVES.

ANTONIO: EXACTLY. EXACTLY.

[theme music]

I’m Tonya Mosley. And from TMI Productions and APM Studios, Truth Be Told presents She Has a Name. A podcast about the disappearance of a sister I never got to know.

Antonio found me after years of searching for his mom on his own. And now I’m here to help him find answers - and along the way, we’re doing something we never expected.

Over the next ten episodes, Antonio and I will explore what it really takes to mend broken family ties and heal in the face of unimaginable loss. Digging up buried secrets we’ve hidden from ourselves and each other.

This is Episode 1, Unidentified Woman, 1987.

[music]

ACT 1

After that initial phone call in May of 2004, Antonio and I instantly became like family. And he seemed to be just as giddy to see pieces of himself in me as I did in him.

ANTONIO: YEAH, YOU KNOW WHAT? SOMETIMES WHEN I LOOK AT YOU, I'D BE LIKE, OH MY GOD. [laughs] YOU GOT ALL THE BEST FEATURES, YOU KNOW. IT'S JUST KIND OF, IT'S MIND BOGGLING. IT REALLY IS.

TONYA: THAT'S JUST FUNNY YOU SAY,I MEAN, I DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S TRUE, BUT I DO THINK, [Antonio laughs] YOU KNOW, I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. ‘CAUSE WHEN I SAY I SEE MYSELF IN YOU, I JUST, I THINK THAT WAS WHEN WE MET ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, I WAS SO IMPRESSED BECAUSE, YEAH, IT JUST, I, YOUR DRIVE, YOUR LOVE OF LEARNING, YOUR INTENSE DESIRE TO KNOW. THOSE ARE THINGS THAT ARE INNATE IN ME. AND SO SEEING THEM IN YOU WAS JUST GRATIFYING. IT WAS JUST LIKE ME PUTTING ANOTHER PIECE OF MYSELF TOGETHER.

ANTONIO: YEAH, I FEEL THE SAME WAY. YOU KNOW, I FEEL LIKE WE'RE, UM, A NEW BEGINNING, SO TO SPEAK. IT'S DIVINE ON SO MANY LEVELS. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING?

[music]

Back then, Antonio was in school at Central Michigan University, finishing up a bachelor's degree in business administration, and I was moving from city to city as a local television reporter. We both shared the same level of ambition.

And during our talks, Antonio would share all the ways he was going to use his degree to rebuild Detroit. He knows the city inside and out…

ANTONIO: SO MCNICHOLS HERE IS ACTUALLY SIX MILE. YOU WON'T REALLY SEE A SIGN THAT SAYS SIX MILE, BUT IT’S NOTED THAT THIS IS SIX. AND, UH, ONE MILE DOWN IS ACTUALLY SEVEN MILE. SO THAT STREET IS CALLED SEVEN MILE. AND THEN EIGHT MILE, THEN ET CETERA, NINE MILE, 10 MILE. SO EIGHT MILE…

These talks we’d have about the city made me feel closer to home and to him. But there was one thing he still does that initially made me uncomfortable when we first met. His use of the word “auntie.”

ANTONIO: AUNTIE, YOU KNOW HOW WE DO IT.

ANTONIO: WELL, I LOVE YOU, AUNTIE. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU.

It didn't feel natural back then to be called “auntie.” For one, the age difference. Back then, we were both in our 20s, and I’m five years younger than him. But more than anything - being called “auntie” felt…it felt so significant. My aunts, growing up, were the next best thing to my mom. It’s a title that’s earned. So it felt overwhelming to receive this designation from Antonio so easily.

But I didn’t protest. Especially after learning more about his mother and the last time he saw her.

ANTONIO: ON ALL ACCOUNTS, YOU KNOW, A PRETTY GOOD DAY. TYPICAL FOR ME, JUST, YOU KNOW, SCHOOL AND EVERYTHING LIKE THAT.

[sprinkler sounds]

The year was 1987, and the dog days had arrived in Detroit - the sun’s beams bouncing off the concrete, radiating a heat that felt especially brutal.

14-year-old Antonio was restless. He and his mother lived together in a small apartment on the west side of the city – and a sleepover at his cousin's house across town felt like the perfect antidote.

ANTONIO: YOU KNOW, I HAD TO ASK FOR PERMISSION, BASICALLY. AND I KNEW IF I CALLED ON THE PHONE, YOU KNOW, SHE WOULD DEFINITELY SAY NO, SO I HAD TO GO HOME AND ASK.

SHE WAS THAT TYPE OF PERSON.

SO I WENT HOME AND, UH, JUST HUNG OUT AROUND THE HOUSE, AND SHE WAS IN A GOOD MOOD.

I REMEMBER SHE WAS LISTENING TO SOME MUSIC AND TIDYING UP, AND SHE SEEMED LIKE SHE WAS IN A GOOD SPACE. AND, UH, SO THAT'S WHEN I ASKED. AND SHE WAS LIKE, YEAH, THAT'S FINE, BASICALLY.

BUT THEN, YOU KNOW, KIND OF GAVE ME THE TALK. BEFORE I LEFT, AND THAT WAS TO ME, I THINK THAT WAS PROBABLY THE ODDEST THING BECAUSE SHE WOULD DO THAT FROM TIME TO TIME, BUT I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHY THEN.

TONYA: WHAT WAS THE TALK?

ANTONIO: HOW SHE LOVES ME. AND, UM, LIKE WE ALL WE GOT.

After spending the weekend with his cousins, Antonio returned to an empty apartment. That wasn’t unusual that his mother wasn’t there. Maybe she was running errands, he thought, or working late.

But as the hours turned into days and days into months, a darker reality began to set in.

Something was wrong.

Antonio’s mother it seemed, was never coming home.

TONYA: HAD YOU AT ANY POINT HELD OUT ANY SLIVER OF HOPE THAT YOUR MOM WOULD BE ALIVE?

ANTONIO: IN A CHILDISH KIND OF WAY, I THINK, UM, FOR YEARS, I CARRIED THAT OPTIMISM. THAT'S THE THING ABOUT MISSING PERSONS. THERE IS NO CLOSURE. SO, YOU KNOW, YOUR MIND GOES IN MANY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS.

Almost immediately after his mother vanished, Antonio became a detective. Fixating on theories, following hunches, meeting with police, and interviewing family and friends.

ANTONIO: KIND OF LIKE WE'RE DOING NOW.

TONYA: YEAH.

ANTONIO: YOU KNOW, JUST KIND OF OPEN UP THAT SPACE, YOU KNOW. BECAUSE FOR SOME OF THESE PEOPLE, THAT WAS REOPENING WOUNDS FOR THEM TOO.

One year, in the mid-2000s, Antonio even managed to get a meeting with the FBI - which didn’t yield much. He felt like they didn’t take him seriously.

ANTONIO: AND THAT WAS WEIRD. ‘CAUSE THAT WAS THE TIME THEY WERE DIGGING UP HOFFA AGAIN. AND SO I HAD SOME COLORFUL WORDS [laughs] TO THE FBI AGENT WHEN HE KIND OF WAS A BIT DISMISSIVE.

He thought, how could authorities spend decades digging all over the midwest for a notorious crime leader like Jimmy Hoffa and not search for a missing mother?

[music]

In the 20 years we’ve known each other, Antonio and I have celebrated many milestones together - he was there for my wedding reception and both of my children’s baby showers.

[sound of children’s birthday party]

I love being Aunt Tonya at his kids’ birthday parties… and our youngest boys look forward to playing with each other every summer when we go home to visit.

But the extent of what I knew about his mom - and his life before finding me - has always been vague. For years all I really knew of her besides the story of her disappearance was a faded photo that he brought with him the first time we met in person. In it, she’s young and vibrant, petite with beautiful black hair adorned by a white flower, her eyes are smiling back at the camera.

The details he would share over the years would come like a slow trickle - until one Sunday in February of 2020 when the dam finally burst.

ANTONIO: I REMEMBER SITTING ON THE COUCH, YOU KNOW, WHEN I GOT THE CALL, UH, I DON'T KNOW, I WAS JUST IN THIS LITTLE FUNK OR WHATEVER, AND UH, I REALLY DON'T ANSWER CALLS I DON'T KNOW, BUT THIS CALL JUST, I DON'T KNOW, FOR SOME REASON I ANSWERED IT. SO CRAZY TO ME BECAUSE I NEVER FORGET, THE DAY WAS FEBRUARY 2ND, 2020, AND WHEN I LOOKED AT IT, I SAID, WOW, THAT'S A PALINDROME. AND I JUST REMEMBER LIKE, JUST BEING STUCK ON THAT.

A palindrome. A number that reads the same backwards as forwards.

[cemetery nature sounds]

Some say it can signify the cycle of life, a message from the universe, and in this case, the grave.

SHANNON: SHANNON JONES FROM DPD. THE REASON WE’RE HERE…

The phone call was from the Detroit Police Department. All of this time – three decades - Antonio’s mom was just outside of the city, buried in a cemetery for people with no dental records, fingerprints, or family.

ANTONIO: IRONICALLY, RIGHT NEAR WHERE I WAS WORKING AT THE TIME. SO IT WAS SO WEIRD. YEAH. IT'S LIKE, WOW, I KIND OF KNOW THAT AREA.

Antonio’s mother was less than a mile away from his job, a place he’d drive by every single day for years.

SHANNON: UM, THIS IS SOMETHING THAT STARTED AS A CRAZY IDEA, THAT WE DISCUSSED…

That’s Detroit Police Detective Sergeant Shannon Jones giving a pep talk to a team of forensic experts at the United Memorial Garden Cemetery.

SHANNON: WE'VE DONE OVER 200 IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS. 200, AND WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO UNITE JUST AROUND, RIGHT AROUND 20 FAMILIES THROUGH DNA, AND THEN LIKE ANOTHER 10 JUST BY RE-VETTING ALL THE CASE FILES BEFORE WE EVEN HAD TO DIG THEM, WE WERE ABLE TO IDENTIFY THEM. SO I WANNA, I WANNA THANK EVERYBODY FOR TAKING TIME AWAY FROM YOUR FAMILY…

These forensic experts are also anthropologists. For five years, they’ve been digging at this cemetery, recovering shoes and bits of clothing, which gets them closer to finding bone to test for DNA.

VOLUNTEER 1: IF THERE IS SOMETHING, MAYBE A VERTEBRA OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, OR I DON'T KNOW, IS THAT, HUMOROUS LOOK GOOD? SOMETHING THAT'S NOT…

Sergeant Jones has served as one of the lead detectives for about a decade now, investigating missing persons in Detroit. And there were these cases that just got under her skin. Cases that she couldn't get traction on, some dating all the way back to the 1940s.

NEWS CLIP: EDGE AT 11 STARTS NOW…

SHANNON: WHAT IF WE JUST TOOK DNA FROM EVERY UNIDENTIFIED PERSON THAT WE HAD AND GET IT SUBMITTED? AND ONCE IT'S THERE, ANYBODY THAT EVER COMES TO REPORT THEIR FAMILY MISSING, IF THEY SUBMIT DNA, WE CAN POSSIBLY MAKE MORE CONNECTIONS.

Antonio heard about it from his girlfriend's mother, who had seen Sergeant Jones talking about it on the news. It’s the first of its kind in the nation. And they call it Operation United, which stands for Unknown Names Identified Through Exhumation & DNA.

Now needless to say, Antonio was leery about giving authorities his DNA. But he’d also heard so many great stories about how science was bringing families together. So he gave it a shot. And four years later, Antonio and his mom were Operation United’s first match.

SHANNON: IN 2019, THAT'S WHEN WE DID THE EXHUMATION OF ANITA, AND WE HAD LIKE 12 OTHER HOMICIDE CASES THAT WE WERE ABLE TO FIND THAT YEAR. SHE WAS THE FIRST ONE THAT CAME BACK.

Anita Wiley was her name.

And finding her was not only important to us, it was a lynchpin for Operation United. Because this cemetery - United Memorial - kept scattered records and buried many unidentified bodies very close to or on top of each other.

Couple that with the elements. Rain and snow and heat and cold shift the ground, and as tree roots grow, they squish the unidentified buried bodies together, making all of these makeshift markers and maps created for this cemetery more of a guessing game than an exact science.

SHANNON: A LOT OF MATH OUT HERE ON MEASUREMENTS, LIKE WHEN, AND IT HELPS ANYTIME YOU GET THAT SUCCESSFUL NAME THAT COMES BACK, YOU CAN LOOK BACK AND SAY, OKAY, THIS PERSON WAS BURIED ON THIS DAY, UM, AND THIS WAS GRAVE NUMBER, YOU KNOW, 200. NOW WE'RE LOOKING FOR GRAVE 190. WE NEED TO GO, YOU KNOW, X AMOUNT OF FEET THIS WAY.

When Antonio got the call from Sergeant Jones that February day in 2020, he wasted no time. He jumped in his car, gas tank literally on E, and raced down to police headquarters to hear the rest.

He finally had answers to where his mother had been all of this time.

ANTONIO: SO ONCE SHE, YOU KNOW, REVEALED, LIKE, WE FOUND YOUR MOM, JOY AND PAIN, RIGHT?

JUST A WHOLE BALL OF EMOTIONS. AND OF COURSE I WAS STOIC ABOUT IT, IN THE MOMENT, YOU KNOW, I COULDN'T, YOU KNOW, I GOTTA STAY BUTTONED UP, SO TO SPEAK, BUT I JUST REMEMBER, LIKE, UH, WHEN I WAS WALKING OUT, AND I GOT IN THE ELEVATOR, AH, MAN, I JUST MELTED.

I HOPE THAT WASN'T CAUGHT ON CAMERA. [laughs]

TONYA: WHY? WHY?

ANTONIO: UH MAN, I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN…I HAVEN'T, I HAVEN'T CRIED SINCE I WAS A KID, YOU KNOW, BUT I DEFINITELY CRIED THAT DAY. I WENT STRAIGHT TO THE CEMETERY, UH, STRAIGHT TO MY MOM.

Like always, soon after, Antonio called to share the news with me.

Reporters were calling him for an interview.

CLIP FROM NEWS REPORT: THIS IS A PICTURE OF ANITA WILEY, 33 YEARS AGO…

But he wanted me to be the one to tell the full story.

Now, this is trust. This really feels for the first time, like I’m starting to fill the role of auntie.

Anita’s story is now in my hands. To let her name and her story be known.

[musical transition]

ACT 2

[car engine starts, Tonya talking]

So now I'm here with my producers, back home in Detroit, trying to help Antonio figure out how Anita could have ended up buried in a cemetery for unidentified people when Antonio and other family members had been searching for her all this time.

TONYA: HI, SERGEANT JONES.

SHANNON: HI, HOW ARE YOU?

TONYA: I'M TONYA.

SHANNON: HI.

TONYA: FINALLY NICE TO MEET YOU IN PERSON.

SHANNON: HOW WAS YOUR TRIP?

TONYA: GREAT. HAVE YOU ALREADY…

The first stop is Police Headquarters, a sleek new office building in the heart of downtown.

A far cry from the old grimy headquarters on Beaubian, where police were stationed during the city's most violent periods.

The lobby feels different than I had imagined. Less Beverly Hills Cop and more like a community center. So much of Detroit feels new and clean, especially in the downtown area. Very different from how it was when I was growing up here in the 80s and 90s, when there was literally nothing here but abandoned buildings and boarded-up storefronts.

Sergeant Jones leads me into a conference room. Her dark hair is pulled back into a tight ponytail, and her facial expression is stoic, matching her reputation of being all about business.

TONYA: HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?

SHANNON: UM, I DON'T KNOW HOW - I CAN TELL YOU HOW OTHERS WOULD DESCRIBE ME. [laughs] I'M VERY DEDICATED.

Those who have worked with her, like retired Detroit Detective Ira Todd, describe her as being all about connecting the dots. The two worked together about a decade ago on a homicide case before Operation United.

IRA: SHANNON'S ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE THAT WHEN SHE GOT AN INVESTIGATION, SHE HAD A TASTE FOR IT, A THIRST FOR IT. AND YOU KNOW, WE USED TO CALL HER A LITTLE WEIRD, YOU KNOW, CAUSE I'M TELLING YOU, WE USED TO TEASE HER ABOUT IT. BUT YOU KNOW, SHE GOT ALL THESE BONES THAT SHE WOULD DIG UP ALL AROUND HER DESK AND THINGS LIKE THAT. AND SHE WAS REALLY INTO IT.

Sergeant Jones took over Antonio’s case after he submitted DNA back in 2016, and with her fresh eyes and determination to solve cases, I hope being here allows me to get a step further than he was able to all of those years ago when authorities brushed him off.

[sound of Sergeant Jones talking]

Right away, Sergeant Jones tells me that police in 1987 likely found Anita’s body a few months after she disappeared, though it's really hard to know.

Anita's family says they filed a missing persons report, but Sergeant Jones says they have no record of it. Which isn’t surprising, because so many of Detroit's records have been destroyed by floods or fire.

TONYA: CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT WHERE SHE WAS FOUND AND HOW SHE WAS FOUND?

SHANNON: YEP, SO SHE WAS FOUND WHEN THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WENT AND RESPONDED TO A VACANT HOUSE THAT WAS SET ON FIRE.

TONYA: WERE YOU ABLE TO IDENTIFY MANNER OF DEATH?

SHANNON: THEY WERE ABLE TO IDENTIFY, I BELIEVE SHE WAS RULED, UH, STRANGULATION.

Anita was murdered. It's what we all figured. No way she'd ever leave her family and her son like that.

But confirming it doesn't make it any easier. Whoever killed her, Sergeant Jones believes, likely did it before hiding her body in a vacant house and setting it on fire.

TONYA: SO HER BODY WAS FOUND, BUT IT WASN'T A NEWS ITEM AT THAT TIME. IT DIDN'T, OR MAYBE NOT.

SHANNON: SO THEY DID, THEY DID DO STUFF BACK THEN, UM, AND IT WOULD JUST BE LIKE A LITTLE ARTICLE IN THE PAPER WHERE IT WOULD SAY LIKE, UNKNOWN FEMALE OR UNKNOWN MAN RECOVERED IN A FIELD.

TONYA: BUT IT'S JUST LIKE A NEWS BRIEF OR SOMETHING.

SHANNON: AND IT'LL BE LIKE A LITTLE THING OFF TO THE RIGHT THAT, YOU KNOW, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF WHAT THEY KNOW. AND THAT WOULD BE THEIR JOB TO DO THAT, PUSH IT OUT, TO TRY TO GET SOME TYPE OF FAMILY TO MAYBE READ IT OR SEE IT AND THEN COME IN. I THINK EVERYBODY READ THE NEWSPAPER BACK THEN. AS OPPOSED TO NOW, YOU CAN SEARCH THINGS, RIGHT?

I knew I wouldn’t find a full news report on her disappearance and murder, but I scoured the newspaper archives, fully expecting to find at least a brief about Anita's body being found. I couldn't find it.

Just like there are no records of the family's missing persons report from 1987.

What I did find were more than a dozen briefs from the 80s of house fires with bodies inside.

686 people were murdered the year Anita disappeared. One of the highest counts in the city's history.

Detroit, by the way, has a crazy history when it comes to fire. Did you know that in 1805, the entire city went up in flames? Fire literally destroyed the whole city.

And have you heard of Devil's Night? It's died down now, but for years, especially in the 80s, the night before Halloween, people would take to the streets and just burn things down.

Looking through these newspaper archives, I can also see that fire was a really common way for criminals to destroy the evidence of their crimes.

TONYA: WAS IT A REALITY, LIKE, THAT THEY COULDN'T GET TO ALL OF THEM?

IRA: OH, YEAH, DEFINITELY. YOU GOTTA UNDERSTAND, BACK THEN, PEOPLE WERE KILLING PEOPLE, UH, PUTTING THEM IN HOUSES, LIKE, YOU REMEMBER SEEING THE WIRE? IT WAS LIKE THAT. I MEAN, PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE A LOT OF THOSE STORIES ARE TRUE. WE USED TO WATCH THE WIRE AND SAY, MAN, THAT'S JUST LIKE HOW IT WAS IN DETROIT BACK THEN. IT WAS LIKE A LOT OF CRIME GOING ON.

Ira Todd and I met at the Norwest Movie Theater on the northwest side of Detroit when I was in high school. I was working concessions, and he was moonlighting as security.

But I knew of him even before that because in 1994 when he was a Detroit police detective, he was all over the news after being acquitted of shooting and killing an unarmed Cuban immigrant during a drug investigation.

IRA: PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE WHEN YOU KILL SOMEBODY, A PIECE OF YOU DIED, BECAUSE YOU'RE NEVER THE SAME AGAIN. SO THAT PERSON THAT YOU WAS, YOU'RE NEVER THERE AGAIN.

Ira is now in his 60s, and very reflective about his past and his time on the Detroit Police Force. Which is why I called on him. Because I knew he could give me the real deal on what the police department was like when Anita disappeared.

TONYA: HOW DID THE POLICE DEPARTMENT HANDLE THE DEATH AND MURDER? LIKE FROM THE INSIDE, WHAT WAS THE VIEW, WHEN YOU'VE GOT A DEATH TOLL THAT HIGH, LIKE COUNTING UP TO 700 LIVES IN A YEAR?

IRA: OH YEAH. YOU DEALT WITH IT. AND I'MA TELL YOU SOMETHING. YOU HAD SOME OF THE BADDEST HOMICIDE COPS BACK THEN. AND YOU DEALT WITH IT, BUT IT WAS JUST HAPPENING SO MUCH, YOU DEALT WITH IT AS YOU COULD, YOU SOLVED THE ONES YOU COULD AND THE ONES YOU COULDN'T, YOU JUST, THEY FALL, YOU KNOW, THEY FALL AWAY.

Hearing Ira say just so bluntly that crime was so bad that “sometimes cases like your sister’s? They fell by the wayside.”

It feels like confirmation. Of something we always knew.

And insights into what Antonio was likely up against during all those years of searching. Before Sergeant Jones took over.

[musical transition]

ACT 3

[Tonya and producers driving in Highland Park, Michigan]

My producers and I decide to visit the area that Sergeant Jones told us about — where Anita's remains were found.

Wanda Street near Highland Park, a city within a city that spans about six miles smack dab in the middle of Detroit.

When I was a kid, a serial killer named Benjamin Atkins murdered 11 women and would dump their bodies in fields and vacant houses and alleyways throughout the area. I was obsessed with these murders growing up. Just transfixed by the details. News articles described the victims as sex workers and drug addicts - and it always felt like to me, that the news was using their circumstances as a reason for their murders.

A reason for people like me to rest easy, a reason something like this could never happen to me.

TONYA: ALL RIGHT, THIS IS THE AREA.

THIS IS IT. GOSH, LIKE THERE'S, YOU CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT THIS STREET PROBABLY LOOKED LIKE BEFORE. LIKE ALL OF THIS, ALL OF THESE WERE HOUSES, ALL OF THESE LOTS.

I don't really know what I'm looking for. I just want to see and feel, maybe retrace Anita's steps.

TONYA: THIS IS ABOUT IT. I WANT TO GET OUT.

Wanda Street and this neighborhood aren’t too different from the one I grew up in, off of Seven Mile on the northwest side. Most of the houses are gone. The lots are overgrown with tall grass and wildflowers, but I can still make out the bones.

I can envision what once was here.

In between the vacant lots are these well-tended homes with manicured lawns.

The street is so quiet.

TONYA: YOU KNOW, I THINK ABOUT WHAT SERGEANT JONES SAID THAT, UM, PROBABLY BY THE TIME SHE EVEN GOT HERE, SHE WAS DEAD, YOU KNOW? AND THAT, SO THIS IS JUST LIKE A DEPOT, IT'S JUST LIKE WHERE YOU JUST DROP OFF, YOU JUST DROP OFF YOUR TRASH. SHE WAS JUST CONSIDERED TRASH HERE.

It's really wild. When I was a teenager, I used to take the bus downtown on Saturdays for this college prep program. And the bus would pass right through this area. And every single time, I'd think about that serial killer Benjamin Atkins.

Even though the news described the victims as sex workers and addicts, knowing that detail never made me feel like it couldn’t happen to me. Seeing their faces felt like a reflection of my own. I knew, even as a kid, that their stories were more than I’d ever know. So I kinda lived with this low-lying anxiety. This fear. That I could be one of the many stories we’d see on the news each night.

Only later would I come to understand how Anita could have ended up here. But in this moment, as we’re standing on Wanda Street, I can’t even describe how I feel. That the fate of a sister of mine was the one I’ve spent all of my life being afraid of.

TONYA: WAIT, HOLD ON JUST A SEC. LET'S COME DOWN HERE FOR A LITTLE BIT. EXCUSE ME.

A guy walking into one of the homes waves at us. His name is Cortez Merritt and he's lived on this street all of his life. He would have been about 4 or 5 when Anita was brought here.

TONYA: WHAT WAS THIS STREET LIKE BACK THEN?

CORTEZ: IT WAS NICE. IT WAS HOUSES. THAT'S MY AUNTIE’S HOUSE. THAT'S MY COUSIN’S HOUSE. THIS IS MY GRANDMA’S HOUSE. I GREW UP IN IT, BUT SHE PASSED AWAY TWO YEARS AGO. SO I TOOK OVER IT. IT WAS JUST MORE HOUSES. IT WAS NICE AROUND HERE. THAT USED TO BE AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OVER THERE, SO IT WAS A LOT OF PEOPLE. IT WAS NICE AROUND HERE. IT STILL IS, IT’S JUST QUIET.

TONYA: WHEN YOU HEAR THAT SOMEBODY DISCARDED A BODY AND SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE, DOES THAT SURPRISE YOU?

CORTEZ: NAW, IT’S BEEN SO MUCH STUFF AROUND HERE. TRANSGENDER, TRANSGENDERS BEEN FOUND DEAD OVER HERE AND… A LOT.

TONYA: WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CHOOSE THIS, THIS AREA, THIS PLACE?

CORTEZ: IT AIN'T JUST THIS AREA. IT'S EVERYWHERE. IT JUST DEPENDS ON HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR SOMEBODY TO FIND IT, SO. BUT THIS IS A REGULAR, NORMAL HOOD.

Cortez's outlook is so Detroit. Detroiters know that two things can be true about a place. Spend enough time with my mother, and she'll find a way to get in her favorite quote that speaks to this.

TONYA’S MOM: CHARLES DICKENS, UH, IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES AND THE WORST OF TIMES…

It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair…

MOM: IT RESONATES WITH ME SO MUCH BECAUSE OUT OF THE WORST STRUGGLES, IT'S ALWAYS GOOD THAT COMES OUT OF IT IF YOU CAN ENDURE IT, YOU KNOW, IF YOU CAN GO THROUGH IT, YOU ALWAYS COME OUT BETTER.

I know why she loves that Charles Dickens quote so much. It pretty much sums up life and what it means to be from Detroit.

And I'm thinking about what it means for me and Antonio.

What terrible truths will we have to face in order to get to the other side?

And what discoveries about ourselves will we be forced to confront?

TONYA: YOU KNOW THE THING I'M REALLY SURPRISED BY, NOT SURPRISED BY, BUT WAS UNEXPECTED WHEN WE DECIDED TO TELL THIS STORY. TO TELL THIS STORY IS JUST HOW MUCH HEALING WE HAVE TO DO AS WE MOVE THROUGH, OR JUST LIKE, OPENNESS TO HEALING.

ANTONIO: MHM, YEAH. AND THAT, YOU KNOW, THAT'S TAKEN SOME TIME.

And with that time – I’ll come to learn things Antonio has kept close to his chest for decades. Revelations about himself and his mother. Secrets that I’ll only come to know through the making of this podcast.

TONYA: WHY DO YOU THINK YOU HESITATED EARLY ON WHEN WE FIRST MET AND TELLING ME, LIKE, THE FULL DETAILS ABOUT YOUR MOTHER'S DISAPPEARANCE?

ANTONIO: IT’S HEARTBREAKING. I DIDN’T WANT TO BREAK YOUR HEART.

[music]

This season on She Has A Name…

Who was Anita? And what details about her short life can help us make sense of why she was murdered?

FRANK: SHE WAS ALWAYS SELF-MOTIVATED. IN OTHER WORDS, SHE WAS JUST A NATURAL-BORN HUSTLER.

VALERIE: EVEN AFTER OUR MOM DIED AND OUR DAD LEFT US, SHE JUST KNEW WHAT TO DO.

Throughout this season, Antonio and I dive into the underbelly of Detroit - exploring the impacts of the city’s economic collapse and how the false promise of prosperity during the crack cocaine era might have led Anita down a dark path.

VALERIE: I’M TELLING YOU MY LAST WORDS TO MY SISTER WAS, DON’T GO, PLEASE DON’T GO. ‘CAUSE I AIN’T GONNA NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN.

What does a young boy hold on to when his mother is gone? A version of her and himself that is sometimes rooted in the instinct for survival versus the truth.

CORRINE: I GUESS AT FIRST IT WAS, MY MOM DIED OF CANCER, BUT THEN LIKE SLOWLY OVER TIME THERE WOULD BE THESE LITTLE CLUES THAT MADE ME THINK THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED.

And as we look to authorities to solve this 37-year-old cold case - we ask ourselves the toughest question of all: will it be possible to heal if we never truly know who killed Anita?

[theme music]

She Has a Name is a TMI and APM Studios production. Our team includes executive producer Antonio Wiley, showrunner Nicole Hill, audio producer and sound designer Marie Mendoza, and research producer Kristin Fraser.

Our music was composed by Andy Clausen.

Sound design and final mastering by Enrico Benjamin.

APM's executive producer is Erica Kraus. Senior production manager is Nick Ryan.

And APM executives in charge are Joanne Griffith, Alex Shafford, and Chandra Kavati. I'm your host, creator, and executive producer, Tonya Mosley.

And I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Ira Todd, my admin Rochelle Roberts, Melissa Kuypurs at NPR West, Chris Turner, and Cara Sabin at WDRB in Louisville, Kentucky for finding and letting us use audio from one of my very first reporting jobs. To the great guys at Fox Archives for helping us get audio from FOX 2 in Detroit. To Kate O’Brian from Scripps News and Kennan Oliphant from WXYZ in Detroit for letting us use reporting clips from 7 Action News. And thank you to everyone willing to talk to us about this important story.

This is for us.