The Skeleton Key Chronicles

14 hours ago

This week marks 60 years since 17-year-old Jolaine Hemmy was found in Pecos, Texas. For decades, she was known only as the Pecos Jane Doe, but that's before DNA finally identified her in 2021. The man she was last seen with is a different story. He has never been identified and investigators are still trying to figure out who he was all these years later.

It was July 5th, 1966, when a young couple checked into the Ropers Motel in Pecos, Texas, signing the register as "Mr. and Mrs. Russell Battuon." A motel employee later remembered the man as slim, with a blond crew cut, and appearing older than the dark-haired teenage girl with him. To the staff, they looked like any other couple passing through town.

But within a few hours later, a motel employee would find the girl submerged in the motel swimming pool. She was given CPR and taken to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. While the unknown young woman was being treated, the man told motel staff he needed to grab their registration card for identification at the hospital. Instead, he gathered up their personal items, got into a 60's model sedan and drove away. To this day investigators have never identified him.

What nobody in Pecos knew was that the young woman in the pool had already been missing for four days out of another state. On July 1st, 1966, 17-year-old Jolaine Hemmy went missing from a Kansas City drive-in diner where she worked as a car hop waitress. She never returned to collect her final paycheck, and despite extensive efforts by her family and law enforcement, no one could figure out where she had gone. One relative later remembered a man who had taken a particular interest in Jolaine around the time she disappeared. Her siblings described her as shy and said they didn't remember her having any boyfriends and certainly couldn't think of anyone she would have willingly left with. Interestingly enough, they also shared that Jolaine didn't know how to swim.

For more than 55 years, Jolaine's family had no idea she had been found more than 760 miles from home. That changed in 2021, when DNA and genetic genealogy identified the young woman from the Pecos motel as Jolaine.

Today, the Pecos Police Department is still asking for information about the man Jolaine was last seen with. Sixty years later, investigators believe someone still knows who he was and what happened during those final days.

More info 👇 … See MoreSee Less

The Skeleton Key Chronicles

21 hours ago

Thirty-three-year-old Tyler James Wagaman disappeared in mid-June, and three weeks later, he still hasn't been found. The search for Tyler gained momentum after his brother, Brian "Wags" Wagaman, received a message on June 15th from Tyler's boss saying Tyler hadn't been to work in nearly two weeks. Wags was out of town at the time and has helped lead the search ever since. He says Tyler mostly kept to himself. "He goes to work, comes home, and plays his video games. That's his entire life," Wags said. Which makes the fact that Tyler's social media has been silent since June 12th, and there hasn't been any activity on his Xbox account or bank account since June 14th even more concerning.

Tyler lives in Greenwood, Indiana, and was last seen on June 14th, 2026. As investigators began piecing together his movements, one of the biggest breakthroughs came from a series of Flock license plate readers across central Indiana. Tyler's black 2003 Ford F-150 was first captured by a Flock license plate reader near Mann Road and Hadley Road at approximately 3:30 a.m. on June 15th. About five minutes later, it was seen at a Circle K on State Road 144 before another Flock reader captured it near Kentucky Avenue and Mann Road around 4:23 a.m.

Two days later, on June 17th, Tyler's cellphone made its last known ping near 4324 Hollybrook Drive in Gosport, roughly 35 miles southwest of his home in Greenwood. After all of that, his phone went silent. Even with all of this driving, the truck appears to have stayed within the same general area before the trail suddenly ends.

The Flock sightings provide investigators with a partial timeline of Tyler's movements, but they don't explain where he went, what happened to his truck, or why he never made it home.

Three weeks later, Tyler James Wagaman is still missing. He is 6'2", weighs about 190 pounds, has a thin build, short brown hair and blue eyes. He was driving a black 2003 Ford F-150 with Indiana license plate TK9450XP, and family members say the driver's-side mirror may be damaged. Anyone who remembers seeing Tyler, his truck, or anything unusual along that route is encouraged to contact investigators.

More info 👇 … See MoreSee Less

The Skeleton Key Chronicles

1 day ago

Twenty-five years ago today, Tracey Bradley headed to work, expecting to come home a few hours later to her daughters, Tionda and Diamond. Instead, she walked into a quiet apartment and found a handwritten note. The girls were gone, and they have never been seen again.

The note said 10-year-old Tionda had taken her 3-year-old sister, Diamond, to a nearby grocery store and then to the playground. Investigators later determined the handwriting matched Tionda's, but over the years, family members have questioned whether the wording sounded like something she would have written.

What followed was one of the largest searches for missing children in Chicago's history. Officers, volunteers and search teams searched neighborhoods, abandoned buildings and nearby waterways, but there was no sign of the sisters. Because of the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, many have long believed the girls likely knew whoever they left with. Over the years investigators have followed countless leads, even looking into claims from women who believed they might be one of the girls, but DNA testing ruled those claims out.

Twenty-five years have passed, but the search hasn't stopped. Tracey Bradley and her family have spent those years continuing to look for answers, while investigators have released age-progressed images and followed new leads. The case remains open, and authorities continue to ask anyone with information to come forward

More info👇 … See MoreSee Less