Podcast tries to answer Pierce County mystery: What happened to Misty Copsey?
The unsolved 1992 disappearance of Misty Copsey has haunted the Puyallup area for over three decades, and now a podcast series through Investigation Discovery hopes to provide information that had not been uncovered before.
“Who Took Misty Copsey?” is Investigation Discovery’s newest true-crime series. It is hosted by cold-case investigator Sarah Cailean. Cailean spent 25 years in law enforcement, where she studied criminal theory and the justice system.
According to the show’s description, Cailean goes through anonymous tips, interviews with Misty’s family and friends, police records and media reports in order to get to the bottom of the case.
The podcast will release one episode per week for eight episodes. Episode 1 is out, and Cailean told The News Tribune the entire series will be available by mid-September.
“Who Took Misty Copsey?” was No. 1 in top shows in the Apple Podcasts app as of Monday.
Background of Misty’s disappearance
Misty, 14, went to the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup on Sept. 17, 1992 with her best friend, Trina. They left the fairgrounds at around 8:30 p.m., and Misty planned to take a bus back to her house in Spanaway, The News Tribune reported.
She missed the bus and told her mother 15 minutes later that she would try to get a ride with a friend. No one would hear from Misty again after that night, with police initially labeling her as a runaway.
The investigation would turn cold for decades, and there are no confirmed answers as to what happened to Misty. No remains or other physical evidence have been found to help move Misty’s case forward.
Examining Misty’s case through the podcast
From exploring the unsolved murder of a woman from Alabama to attempting to find answers of the killing of a Kansas woman from 1992, Cailean turned her attention to Misty’s case after she read an article by News Tribune sports editor and veteran journalist Sean Robinson.
Cailean said listeners of the podcast will get to hear from several people about Misty’s case, including a member of the Puyallup Police Department and retired Tacoma detective Lindsay Wade. In the first episode, Cailean spoke with Misty’s brother, Colton Smith.
“Colton Smith was born after Misty disappeared, but you know, his mom, Diana, was always very open with him,” she said. “He is the one, as we’re going to talk about in the podcast, but he’s the one really carrying the torch for this now that Diana has passed.”
Smith is one of a number of people connected to the case who listeners will get to meet.
“... and I think that they’ll be very surprised by some of the people who were willing to speak with us,” Cailean said. “There will also be some people who we [keep anonymous], who have really important information that we are going to be able to share with the public.”
Cailean said the people who were kept anonymous still do not feel safe talking publicly about Misty’s disappearance and what happened that night.
By the time the series has aired, Cailean believes that listeners will learn things that they had never known about the case. Cailean said she would like to bring any new information that she gathered through the podcast to the Puyallup police.
“At the end of the day, the most important thing is the recovery of Misty’s remains and the potential for there to be some kind of justice,” she said.
“Who Took Misty Copsey?” is available on platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
