“I’m Marie Hughes and this is Missing. Thank you for joining us. Each week we cover a missing person case that isn’t getting much attention. Cases we covert often fly under the radar. Every missing person matters and together we can bring answers to the family and friends of the missing. This week’s featured case, Sarah Bushland, a decades old cold case mystery. Last seen in 1996. Sarah was just 15 years old when she vanished. Her sister Lesie recounts years of trauma, abuse, and secrets.”
“When bad things did happen, then we’re told not to tell anyone because then we won’t see, you know, like that’s what my mom told me. Don’t tell anyone, otherwise you won’t ever see me again.”
“Coming up, we look closely at Sarah’s disappearance. I’ll talk with Leslie, her sister, who after all these years is not giving up hope. We’ll also talk about the clues, the evidence, and the latest searches for Sarah. First, an update on several other missing cases. The US Coast Guard seizing a sailboat in connection to the disappearance of Lynette Hooker. Lynette and her husband were staying on the boat Soulmate in the Bahamas when he says Lynette fell in the water and then was swept away by a strong current. Brian Enton is in Florida where the boat is currently docked.”
“Brian Hooker’s sailboat is now back uh in the United States in Florida. We are actually right near a Coast Guard base in Fort Pierce, Florida. This is the closest uh that we could get. We wanted to put our drone up, but you can’t fly drones here because obviously of the of the Coast Guard base, but there’s the boat Soulmate right there. Uh it is tied up right at the Coast Guard base. That is the boat that Brian Hooker and Lynette Hooker lived on. Uh we know that it has now been seized by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has confirmed that they are uh doing some kind of criminal investigation. We haven’t seen them out processing the boat at all or any like forensic investigators on the boat, but you’ll remember uh Lynette Hooker went went missing a little more than a month ago. She was living on that boat with her husband, Brian Hooker. Uh they were on a dinghy. He claims the weather was bad, although other boat captains in the area say the weather actually was not bad. Uh and he claims that she fell off. Her family says that doesn’t make any sense. They’re skeptical about the story. He has since left the Bahamas. He was in custody for three days. Uh but but left the Bahamas and is now back in the United States. And then this is the latest development. His sailboat here um at the Coast Guard station in Fort Pierce, seized by the Coast Guard as this investigation uh continues.”
“A positive outcome in another missing case in Georgia. The son of an airport employee in Atlanta has been found safe. the airport had posted on social media, a plea to help find the 16-year-old. The family says they got a tip on Thursday, May 7th, that helped lead them to Ben. A sad update to a case that we brought you last fall about the search for Matt Spencer, who disappeared on a road trip from California to Texas. The Cookanino County Sheriff’s Office in Northern Arizona reports that deputies located personal items belonging to Matt. This was the area of Dogtown Lake and Forest Service Road 140 near Williams, Arizona. Along with those items, skeletal remains were also found. The medical examiner’s office confirming this is indeed Matt. His twin sister is still trying to cope with this devastating news. Investigators are also working to figure out how he died. Now to this week’s featured case. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children suggested the case of Sarah Bushland to us to be our next missing report. And as we dug into this story, we found one of a child who went through absolute horror before she ever disappeared. And when Sarah vanished 30 years ago, law enforcement and some in her own family figured she’d be back soon. Sarah and Leslie Bushland blossomed around the adults who doted on them. Professional portraits nearly every year. Just about every fish photographed from botched bangs to the perm era.”
“So for the longest time I was taller, but then she ended up catching up.”
“Childhood in the 1980s Wisconsin was about lake life, sisterhood, and the joy of being a kid until it wasn’t.”
“It was very bad. Very bad. Yes. Abuse went on for years and undocumented.”
“Divorce meant the girls spent time with their mom, stepdad, and lots of steps.”
“The authorities did get in contacted um when I was in fifth grade. So Sarah would have been in fourth grade. There was physical exams done, all of that, but there’s just no repercussions for the offender. Um, and the offender was not supposed to be in the house anymore and continued to be there.”
“Sarah and Lesie briefly moved with their dad to Colorado, but before long, Sarah was back in Wisconsin, living with her mom and step family.”
“We were all kind of left to our own there. Um, not much just not much parenting.”
“At Horus Man High School in Spooner, Sarah was wellliked. After hanging out with older friends, she was frequently in trouble at home.”
“When bad things did happen, then we’re told not to tell anyone because then we won’t see, you know, like that’s what my mom told me. Don’t tell anyone, otherwise you won’t ever see me again.”
“despite all all the horrific things and the things that happened at home that should never happen and all that outwardly she was a bubbly personality that was just you know from all accounts a joy to be around.”
“Robert Dudley is an author who has taken up Sarah’s case. April 3rd, 1996 was the kickoff to Easter weekend. All agree Sarah took the school bus home to her driveway.”
“was pulling up to Sarah’s stop at the end of the driveway at the Lambert home and Sarah turned around and saw a truck and someone inside it be right behind the bus and her eyes lit up. She knew who it was.”
“What happened next is important and a mystery? Did Sarah get in that truck or walk up the wooded driveway to her home?”
“some accounts that say, you know, the truck pulled into the driveway after the bus left.”
“April 3rd, I got a phone call from my mom. She was very upset in an angry way. Um, just stating like, ‘Where is your sister? Where is your sister?’ And I’m like, ‘How would I know? She’s living in Spooner and I’m living in Chipo Falls.’ Well, she never came home. She didn’t come home after school. And I said, ‘Mom, I don’t understand. You’re never so worried.’ Right? We were teenagers. We made different plans sometimes. It was so out of character. And my mom never called me, right? Like she we were not close. And so for her to call me that day, um, in hindsight was very different. Um, and then I never heard from her again for days. And so I assumed that she found Sarah and everything was good.”
“It was not good. Her mother, Marie, and stepfather, Jim Lambert, reported Sarah missing a day later.”
“It seems like they were kind of nonchalant and reported her missing as a runaway. You know, there was no official report taken. You know, the the word is the information was just put on the back of a napkin.”
“The Washurn County Sheriff’s Office reports it took 6 months for its deputies to start checking locations and conducting interviews. And 2 years before a fullscale investigation launched,”
“Sarah never ran away. Like 100% do not believe that. And so what that did was just stall the investigation. And um to my knowledge, I can only say from what I know for sure, I was not interviewed until the year 2000.”
“When you take a look at Sarah’s case here from from the mid 1990s, you know, it was more of a uh you give it some time. Uh they’ll be home. Uh I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
“Law enforcement has done such an amazing job over the years evolving themselves and their response to missing children. John Bishoff of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children oversees a team working on this case and tens of thousands each year. The nonprofit putting out multiple age progressions of Sarah and helping build her DNA profile.”
“This is Sarah stuff.”
“Yes.”
“Based on personal items recovered from the Lambert property. The way technology is evolving these days, faster than we’ve seen ever before as a society, we need to make sure we’ve applied all today’s resources on older cases.”
“After her mother and Jim Lambert died, Leslie says the court gave her access to the 65 acre property. A documentarian went along.”
“This is from her friend Sarah from Colorado.”
“Over a three-year period, Lesie organized countless searches. Cadaavver dogs made several hits.”
“One being the basement of a home um that was built after she went missing. I apologize to the new owners cuz we jackhammered up the floor and took out the septic tank. Um and then under that we did find like some burnt residue. It did go to the lab um but came back inconclusive.”
“Then in 2021, 25 years after the disappearance, the Washurn Sheriff’s Office revealing details about Sarah’s quote family life. Specifically, that there was a history of abuse in the Lambert home, including sexual abuse of Sarah at a young age. that before she vanished, Jim Lambert found Sarah’s diary in which she reportedly wrote that she had been sexually active with at least one of her stepbros. The investigation noted Sarah recently had an abortion. Lesie says Jim had forbidden Sarah from seeing her boyfriend Travis in the weeks leading up to her disappearance April 3rd.”
“Jim had a very stronghold on people. He was very good at threatening people. um the fact so Sarah had an abortion in February and it was said to be Travis’s baby, her boyfriend at the time, and Travis then was told that he needed to pay Jim for the abortion by March 31st.”
“We know this from Sarah’s diary. The decaying walls of Sarah’s room stood as a stark reminder. This was a 15-year-old girl, barely out of childhood, whose disappearance would sound alarms with much more immediacy and intensity in this day and age. A girl who always deserved to be found.”
“We could draw attention to Sarah’s case, fill in more of the blanks, uh, you know, find addition additional information, uh, just get, you know, get more people on on team Sarah. We’ve learned as an organization to not give up hope. Uh these families haven’t given up on their family member. Law enforcement hasn’t given up. We’re not giving up. We want the answers. We want to find that child.”
“There’s still time to say something. There’s still time to come forward. I cannot imagine. It’s hard enough living in the situation we’re in not knowing, but I can’t imagine knowing and holding it to myself, right? Like how that has to just be such a burden. At this point, we just want to know where Sarah is.”
“The Washurn County Sheriff’s Office turned down our request for an on camera interview. We did supply written questions on the case and received no reply. Today, Sarah Bushland would be 45 years old. Sarah’s sister, Lesie, is with us now to talk more about the case. Leslie, welcome and thank you. Do you believe 30 years later, your sister is still alive?”
“I would love to say that, you know, that that is a possibility. Uh she’s a very social person and um the lack of hearing from her is concerning.”
“What is your theory about what happened based on everything you know?”
“It is so hard to say what a theory would be. You know, that’s obviously the first question that most people ask me and um because there isn’t any physical evidence. It’s just an open book.”
“What about her diary? Uh, do you have that now? And what else did it reveal about what was going on with Sarah at the time of her disappearance?”
“I do. Um, she was a very confused young girl, just like every other teenage girl. She was um trying to navigate life and and to shield herself from what was happening at home and trying to be normal at school and and just that balance was very hard.”
“after she went missing, how much time passed before your mom and your stepdad passed away and what did they say and communicate or do um to assist in the investigation in that time?”
“Sure. Um so Sarah went missing in 1996 and they both passed away in 2017, so 21 years. Um their behavior throughout the entire time was very odd. Uh, no real alarms were um, sent off in the beginning and then just a lot of um, I want to say hush hush conversation. You know, if I were to ask questions, I would not get a direct answer. Um, but obviously I wasn’t in the area so for all of those years and so I couldn’t see the dayto-day response.”
“Do you suspect that they had something to do with it?”
“Um, if they didn’t have something to do with it, I believe that they knew what happened.”
“What about the truck that day, Leslie, that was at the bus stop? Who was in the truck that seemed to concern Sarah the moment she saw it?”
“Yeah, it’s a mystery. Um, you know, I wish we could go back and and interview some people right away and get that information. it may, you know, paint a clearer picture of who would have been in that truck. Um there’s been many different people placed in that truck over this over the years just based on people’s um memories. So, it it’s very hard to say.”
“Lots of people have been interviewed now in the case, those who were in Sarah’s life at the time. Has anything new come in the searches all these years later, or have people been reintered in the case?”
“Um, people have been reintered. I don’t know of any big tips that have come in over the years. Um, you know, other than us finding her DNA when we had access to the property, that would be like the the biggest ticket item that has happened. Um, each tip that comes in, I know that it’s being fully investigated, but each tip seems to just take this in a different direction. And so it’s it’s hard to know uh what is valid and what’s not. And unfortunately, so many people involved with Sarah’s life have passed away.”
“Yeah. Tell us about that property, Leslie. I mean, you’ve been out there. Um, what else stands out to you about the life she was living?”
“Um, you know, it was I want to call it a hoarder property. They had a lot of stuff and a lot of buildings and a lot of um supplies. So, it was very chaotic. it was um and along with that nothing’s taken care of. So, a lot of ruined homes and ruined buildings. Um her bedroom was just large enough to fit a twiniz bed and then it had a um a table where you can reload ammunition in it. That was how large her bedroom was. Um it was not fit for a girl to live there. and it’s under new ownership. Now,”
“do you feel as though you have adequately searched that property to to your satisfaction that there’s nothing evidentiary that remains?”
“When we had access for the three years, you can see in these pictures how much stuff there is. We touched everything. Um, everything got moved from one room to the next so that we could get our hands on it. Um, so it it’s if it’s if anything is there, um, I’m not sure what to say.”
“Yeah. What else do you can you share about the property and around it? Um, what else is in this area that might be of note especially to people who have lived there for years?”
“Sure. So, the property, you know, has a lot of acreage, but then it also has a small lake on the property. Um the lake has been searched a couple times now. Um it’s very rural, so there, you know, neighbors are not close by. Um you know, it’s not like living in town. So, um it it’s just a very rural property.”
“What’s it like for you, Leslie, being Sarah’s next of kin and essentially the one that continues to search for her? I it’s not easy.”
“You know, I always say that it feels like we’re in a really bad movie that just doesn’t end. Um there’s no ending to this right now. And keeping the strength to want to keep going and you know there’s roadblock after roadblock and we just keep pushing through. I have great support. you know, I have um family and friends and friends that I’ve made along the way that understand what I’m going through because they also have a missing loved one. So, um I can’t say that I’m doing it on my own.”
“Yeah, we’re looking at some of the pictures of you, Leslie, with Sarah, when you guys were young. Um we talked a lot in the piece about some of the struggles and challenges and traumas she faced, but tell us about the good the good days, the times that you reflect on and remember fondly. Yeah. Yeah.”
“We, you know, up until a point, we had a really good childhood and we got along well. We loved to be outside. The adventure was always outside. Lots of swimming, lots of um just time on the lake. Um she was a spitfire and she had a lot of um charisma, so she was always making sure that everybody around her was having a good time.”
“What’s your message, Leslie, to anybody who knows anything that could help give you closure and know what happened to your sister?”
“It’s not just for me, it’s for them also. Like relieve the burden, right? This living with knowing what happened to her has to be a struggle. And at this point, we just want to know where Sarah is.”
“Leslie, thank you for sharing your time, for sharing the positive memories of your sister. and let’s hope new attention all these years later reaches people far and wide so that you get the answers that you deserve. Appreciate you talking to us.”
“Thank you.”
“All right, several other missing cases that we’d like to share with you with special Mother’s Day messages particularly this week. The search continues for Amy Hillyard gone now for nearly two months. This Mother’s Day was very tough for Amy’s family with her missing. Amy’s stepmom, who she is close to, and also her father recently drove to Shasta and Weed, California to expand the search for Amy. These are areas that the family says there have been possible sightings or tips. They also say Amy loves these spots. Amy’s mom, Elizabeth, also wrote a letter to Amy for Mother’s Day, letting her know how proud she is of Amy. She said, ‘For all you have done to enrich the lives of your daughters and also for your friends, we all love you and deeply miss you.’ Amy’s friends also compiled a very special and personal video for Amy on Mother’s Day.”
“Hi Amy, I think about you every day.”
“We bonded over car pools and sleepovers, drop offs and pickups. You and Chris have raised two remarkable young women.”
“There’s nothing you can’t do. There’s nothing you won’t do to support your girls. I really hope that I get to see you soon and work on many more projects together and spend many more special times together.”
“I love you. I miss you and I can’t wait to hug the heck out of you.”
“The reward to bring Amy Hillyard home is $25,000. She was last seen on March 25th in Oakland, California. Anyone with information should reach out to the Oakland Police Department. Authorities say they are still pursuing leads in the Nancy Guthrie investigation as it hits the 100day mark. Investigators believe that she was abducted from her home in Tucson. No suspects have been named publicly. The sheriff’s office saying in a statement, ‘Scientific evidence processing and digital media analysis remains ongoing.’ The sheriff’s office and FBI personnel continue to review evidence using established forensic protocols. Investigative teams are also actively pursuing leads and tips. They go on to say, ‘We remain committed to conducting a thorough and comprehensive investigation and appreciate the public’s continued patience and cooperation.’ NY’s daughter, Savannah, host of the Today Show, also posting a special Mother’s Day message.”
“Smile, Mommy.”
“Miss you. The angles. Okay, now do a pose.”
“Look at me. Lost and weary traveler. searching for the way to go.”
“There is a $1 million reward in the case. 1 800 call FBI to bring Nancy Guthrie home.”
