068 - The Vanishing of Susan Walsh

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2019

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thirty-six year old Susan Walsh wanted, more than anything, to be a journalist. She'd put herself through college by dancing in bars and adult clubs. It had been a rough road, and Susan struggled with addiction but when she got married and had her son, everything changed.

Working alongside an acclaimed journalist, Susan was finally getting into the world she wished to explore. Assisting in the writing of an expose, and later a book, about sex workers, Susan operated as a spy, using her connections and infiltrating clubs. Unfortunately, this closeness to the scene slowly drew her back in and soon, she was off the wagon and dancing.

In July of 1996, Susan asked her now estranged husband, Mark, to watch their son David while she walked down the street to use a payphone. Susan was never seen again, and her disappearance launched an investigation that scoured Northern New Jersey and Manhattan. The list of possible suspects was endless from obsessed clients, stalking ex-boyfriends, Russian mafia associates and even so-called 'Vampires.'

What happened to Susan Walsh that hot summer day, and why for more than twenty-three years have the answers eluded authorities? Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines this heartbreaking and baffling case.

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Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/susan-walsh

Transcript

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0:00.0	Susan Walsh was working hard to achieve her dreams. Ever since she'd been a little girl,
0:14.2	she'd wanted to write, and after working in strip clubs and massage parlors throughout
0:19.2	the 1980s, she'd put herself through college and completed her degree. It hadn't been
0:25.1	easy though. That was a difficult world for a young woman to maneuver through, and demons
0:30.6	from her past and struggles with addiction had nearly derailed her life several times.
0:37.9	Now though, she was putting it all together. She was operating as a freelance journalist,
0:43.9	raising a son with her estranged husband, and had been brought in by a writer she admired,
0:49.6	who took her under his wing and helped mentor her. She was able to use her past life experiences
0:56.3	to contribute to stories about the underbelly of the club scene she used to be a part of.
1:02.3	Unfortunately, things would slowly take a steady turn downward, and after a letdown regarding an
1:08.8	article she'd written, the end of her collaboration with her mentor, and the pressures of trying to
1:14.5	provide for her son, Susan fell off the wagon, and soon found herself working those same clubs,
1:21.2	drinking, and using drugs. Her friends saw the struggle and wanted to help, but by the time they
1:27.5	tried, it would be too late. On July 16th 1997, Susan left her son with her ex-husband and walked
1:35.7	down the street to make a call from a pay phone. It was just a half a block away, but Susan was
1:41.8	never seen again. In the ensuing investigation, detectives had struggles with exploring her double
1:48.5	life, that of a devoted and loving mother, crim and proper by day, and a beautiful bleach-blanch
1:55.5	stripper fighting off scores of men by night. What happened to Susan Walsh? Did she fall victim
2:02.5	to someone in the gritty world she inhabited? Was she victimized by one of her ex-boyfriends,
2:08.7	a stalker, her own estranged husband? Or did she, in desperation, leave everything behind to
2:16.4	escape? This is Trace Evidence, episode 68, The Vanishing of Susan Walsh.
2:31.1	Welcome to Trace Evidence. I'm your host, Steven Pacheco.
	...

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