In November 2008, 30-year-old Ani Ashekian landed in Hong Kong—jet-lagged, excited, and ready for her next adventure. She sent a quick birthday text to her niece, withdrew cash from an ATM… and then vanished without a trace.

No calls. No bank activity. No confirmed sightings.  Just a few seconds of CCTV showing Ani standing calmly in a crowded terminal—moments before she disappeared into a city of seven million people.

Was she the victim of a robbery, a scam, or something far darker? Or did Ani choose to disappear on her own terms?

Her journal, later discovered in Canada, hinted at secret plans—but also a growing undercurrent of fear.

Listen as we dive into Hong Kong, the case of Ani Ashekian, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/54077259736/

https://truecrimediva.com/ani-ashekian/

https://websleuths.com/threads/china-ani-ashekian-31-hong-kong-11-nov-2008-canadian-tourist.104205/

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1065968/ani-ashekians-journal-offers-new-clues-after-four-years-silence

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadian-woman-feared-missing-in-china-1.714555

https://www.toronto.com/news/search-continues-for-missing-toronto-woman-in-hong-kong/article_8b549fea-1aa7-5482-b643-1d303e5ada6f.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20151105180831/http://www.findani.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/HongKong/comments/18b64d1/where_is_ani_ashekian/

https://time.com/archive/6948538/u-s-crime-writer-tackles-a-real-hong-kong-cold-case/

https://windsorstar.com/news/sister-to-pick-up-search-in-china

In November 2018, a young man vanished into the gray sea night, stepping across the forbidden line that separated two worlds. 

His name was John Allen Chau - twenty-six years old, an American with a quiet resolve, a missionary’s conviction burning in his chest. He sailed toward North Sentinel Island - a place sealed off from the modern world, where the Sentinelese have refused all contact for centuries.

But he wasn’t a tourist. He saw himself as a messenger with a message no one else dared deliver. He carried in his pack a waterproof Bible, gifts, hopes, and a deep certainty that he would either be welcomed or die trying.

What followed is part tragedy, part mystery. The fisherman who dropped him off

 claimed they saw islanders dragging a body across the sand and a burial at dusk. But exactly what happened in the hours between his arrival and his death - no one knows. His body was never recovered.

Was he a martyr? A fool? A man haunted by divine urgency? Or someone who crossed the ultimate boundary - between the known and the unknowable - and paid the price?

Listen as we dive into North Sentinel Island, the case of John Allen Chau, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.instagram.com/johnachau/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/03/john-chau-christian-missionary-death-sentinelese

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46345231

https://allnations.international/john-chau

https://www.alex-perry.com/the-last-days-of-john-allen-chau/

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/22/asia/north-sentinel-island-john-allen-chau-diary-intl

https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/john-chaus-death-roils-the-missionary-world

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/01/747368557/the-story-behind-john-allen-chau-an-american-missionary-who-was-killed-while-wor

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/john-allen-chau-noble-savages/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/john-allen-chau

https://frontline.thehindu.com/arts-and-culture/a-national-geographic-documentary-examines-the-life-and-death-of-john-allen-chau/article67807254.ece

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46336355

https://sojo.net/articles/john-allen-chau-was-product-missions-marketing-system

https://abcnews.go.com/International/john-allen-chau-detailed-efforts-convert-islanders-christianity/story?id=59401238

In March 2020, 18 year old Eloi Rolland left his homestay on Auckland’s North Shore 

just before dawn. He was a French exchange student - curious, soft-spoken, 

and enchanted by New Zealand’s beauty. That morning he opened Google Maps and searched the word Piha. A remote black-sand beach known for its cliffs, its isolation… and its danger.

He caught a bus, then a train. CCTV caught him walking alone as the city woke up. By 9:18am, his phone pinged one final time along Piha Road in Waitakere Ranges - 

and then… nothing.No more messages. No more movement. No more Eloi.  Police scoured the bushland - dense, silent, and endless - but no trace of him was ever found.

What happened in the misty hills outside Auckland? Did Eloi wander off the track? Fall off the cliffs?  Or was something - or someone - waiting for him there?

Listen as we dive into New Zealand, the case of Eloi Rolland, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360759600/parents-missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-take-search-south-island

https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/124382819/missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-friends-and-family-still-have-no-answers-a-year-on?_

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120283016/french-national-eloi-jean-rolland-18-missing-in-auckland

https://www.police.govt.nz/missing-persons/listings/eloi-rolland

https://www.facebook.com/MISSINGELOIJEANROLLAND/

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120409689/french-teen-missing-from-auckland-had-troubled-state-of-mind

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120511116/sister-of-fit-smiley-french-teen-missing-in-auckland-desperate-for-answers

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/120860887/chances-of-finding-missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-alive-becoming-more-slim

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/family-of-french-teen-eloi-jean-rolland-missing-in-auckland-since-march-reveal-more/5GVRVY5ZNGMZMKKHJGV4YDB3R4/

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300097890/missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-family-say-theyve-lost-hope-six-months-after-disappearance

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300189370/the-missing-people-of-piha-25-years-six-cases-no-answers

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300201475/missing-french-teen-eloi-rolland-reportedly-sighted-13km-from-last-known-location

https://www.20minutes.fr/faits_divers/4096164-20240621-disparition-eloi-rolland-nouvelle-zelande-va-declarer-mort-jeune-homme

https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/malgre-labsence-de-corps-la-nouvelle-zelande-va-prononcer-le-deces-deloi-rolland-18-ans-disparu-en-2020-24-06-2024-W2572J4WSNHH7F4NG2S7VJ573M.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwbEs-Xku8Y

In 1975, a musician named Jim Sullivan got into his car and left Los Angeles behind. He was heading east, chasing a new beginning - or maybe running from something he couldn’t name.

He was tall, handsome, magnetic - and his music carried that same restless energy. 

Songs about highways, lost souls, and vanishing into the unknown.

The kind of lyrics that feel like they’re trying to tell you something… if you’re really listening. Somewhere along that long stretch of desert road, Jim stopped - and from that moment on, no one knows what happened next.

His story faded into rumor, mystery, and myth - tangled up in the same strange beauty that filled his songs.

Today, we’re going to follow the same road Jim Sullivan took - the one that led him deep into the desert… and out of the world we know.

Listen as we dive into New Mexico, the case of Jim Sullivan, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/arts/music/jim-sullivan.html

https://archive.ph/20190215195820/https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2010/11/10/the-strange-tale-of-jim-sullivans-u-f-o/

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/missing-ufo-singer-songwriter/

https://waxidermy.com/jim-sullivan-ufo/

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/153yeuj/jim_sullivan_was_an_american_singersongwriter_and/

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/searching-for-sullivan/

https://www.ripleys.com/stories/jim-sullivan

https://floodmagazine.com/71829/mystery-and-history-the-strange-music-and-stranger-tale-of-jim-sullivan/

https://lightintheattic.net/products/jim-sullivan?srsltid=AfmBOor1gs0JjBwiuB7MVBI_bdkadqzkjsUnhjMldXJDv9D5AP5a0PJg

https://therodeomag.com/2019/10/22/the-night-jim-sullivan-disappeared/

https://vocal.media/fyi/whatever-happened-to-musician-jim-sullivan

May 12, 2004 - a day that began like any other for the Devries family.  They were on vacation in Aruba, seeking a moment’s peace, maybe a bit of hope, after a great loss.  Fourteen year old Max, eager for an adventure, asked to go out on a jet ski with a man they recently befriended.

By afternoon, that simple request would become the portal to a mystery no one has solved. The man returned - alone. Max did not.

What’s astonishing is how quickly questions outpaced answers. The man’s story would shift - from jet ski trouble, to a tow gone wrong, to Max slipping away in the waves, to even claiming he was swimming for shore.

Yet no one was ever charged. Max was declared “lost at sea”.

What really happened to Max Devries on that Aruban ocean. Was it a tragic accident, or something far more sinister?  Listen as we dive into Aruba, the case of Max DeVries, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.wxyz.com/news/local-news/investigations/a-metro-detroit-teen-disappeared-in-aruba-in-2004-his-mom-is-still-fighting-for-answers

https://maxtothemillions.com/

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Never-Seen-Again/0FJCILZ3O8D0LOPN4JLLSENIO6

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1h4sw4i/what_really_happened_out_in_the_aruban_ocean_to/

https://www.shoresofstrength.org/featuredcases/maxdevries

https://www.facebook.com/groups/62321359000/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qaC8f965qc

https://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/local/community/brighton-township/2024/03/12/docuseries-investigates-2004-disappearance-of-brighton-teen-in-aruba-max-devries/72941075007/

https://www.chipchick.com/2024/12/his-mom-saw-him-ride-off-on-a-jet-ski-in-aruba-with-an-older-man-and-then-he-vanished

https://thecinemaholic.com/max-devries-found-or-missing-is-he-dead-or-alive/

https://thecinemaholic.com/max-devries-mom-sister/

It was April 1st, 1981, when Johnny Waterman, a 29 year old brilliant climber and haunted soul, set out from the Mountain House deep in the Ruth Glacier of Denali National Park.  His goal was the East Buttress of Denali, approached via the northwest fork of the Ruth - an audacious, almost impossible route in the winter.

He carried remarkably little: a sled, snowshoes, not much food, and wands to mark his route. No tent, no sleeping bag. He told a fellow climber he believed he could manage with minimal gear.

He was last seen somewhere around 11,000 feet - cutting a straight line through a labyrinth of crevasses and snow chutes. 

Then…. He vanished.

Listen as we dive into Alaska, the case of Johnny Waterman, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12198233700/John-M-Waterman-1952-1981

https://youtu.be/zyIB180NitE?si=9I0i-IcWpFMI_Mx8

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/shining-brightly-briefly-johnny-waterman-165023821.html

https://explorersweb.com/shining-brightly-briefly-johnny-waterman-and-his-1978-solo-traverse-of-mount-hunter/

https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net/2025/06/04/the-strange-and-tragic-lives-and-deaths-of-guy-and-johnny-waterman/

https://sites.lafayette.edu/raicha/files/2010/08/Waterman.pdf

https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13198201900/Climbing-Alone-Alaska-Mount-KcKinley

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2193010/The-Legendary-incredible-JOHNNY-WATERMAN

https://uncovered.com/cases/john-waterman

https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/natural-death/

Rebecca Middleton was just 17 years old - on the trip of a lifetime with her best friend - when a chance encounter shattered everything.  What should have been sun-drenched days of beaches and laughter turned into one of the most brutal and baffling murders the island had ever seen.

But the horror of Rebecca’s death was only the beginning. What followed was a twisted path of botched investigations, lost evidence, and a justice system that seemed unwilling - or unable - to deliver the truth. 

Nearly three decades later, the scars of that night still linger, raising questions about power, corruption, and the uneasy shadows that hide behind picture perfect beauty.

Today, we’re stepping into the mystery of Bermuda’s most infamous unsolved crime - where innocence met violence and where justice slipped away into the tide.

Listen as we dive into Bermuda, the case of Rebecca Middleton, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlHSR0klQtw

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/rebecca-middleton-remembered-20-years-after-her-murder-in-bermuda/article_11bbafca-eca8-595a-a8b0-efb47b17ba76.html

https://www.royalgazette.com/news/article/20160703/bermuda-remembers-rebecca-middleton/

https://www.royalgazette.com/crime/news/article/20111228/middleton-family-still-waiting-for-european-court-appeal/

https://www.gov.bm/sites/default/files/F-Miller-v-Yan-Almanzar-et-al-2016-SC-Bda-20-App-4-March-2016.pdf

https://www.royalgazette.com/crime/news/article/20171012/mundy-returns-to-jamaica/

https://www.royalgazette.com/letters-to-the-editor/article/20180702/in-memory-of-rebecca/

https://halifax.citynews.ca/2016/06/29/a-timeline-on-rebecca-middleton-murdered-20-years-ago-in-bermuda/

https://www.gov.bm/sites/default/files/SC0705_D-Middleton-v-Director-of-Public-Prosecution-2007-SC-Bda-33-Civ-4th-May-2007.pdf

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bermuda-offers-small-compensation-for-canadian-teen-s-murder-1.609450

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4069554/

https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bermuda_Chief_Justice:_No_new_charges_in_Middleton_murder

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bermuda-authorities-take-another-look-at-middleton-murder/article20396213/

It was just before dawn on August 12th, 1992, when thirty-six year old Pamela June Ray pulled into a motel parking lot in Panama City Beach, Florida.  Her two young children were asleep in the backseat, unaware their lives were about to change forever.

Pamela was seen speaking with a man near the motel pool. She locked the car, left her children inside, and walked away with him into the early morning darkness.  Minutes later, someone heard a scream. By the time the sun came up, Pamela was gone - and she has never been seen again.

Who was the man she followed? What happened in those missing minutes? And why, more than three decades later, does her disappearance remain one of Florida’s most haunting mysteries?

Listen as we dive into Florida, the case of Pamela June Ray, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Listen to this week's podcast recommendation, Weird True Crime

https://weirdtruecrime.com/

 

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Pamela_June_Ray

https://charleyproject.org/case/pamela-june-ray

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/595dffl.html

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19920817&id=z5cFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DTMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5477,5214613

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/403157651/

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/bGzESC34VMI

https://web.archive.org/web/20150130180756/https://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/20-Year-Mystery-What-Happened-to-Pamela-Ray-165926136.html

https://www.mypanhandle.com/news/pamela-ray-disapperance-still-a-mystery-25-years-later/

https://www.newsherald.com/story/news/2019/03/17/unsolved-bay-county-disappearance-of-pamela-ray/5691237007/

https://lostnfoundblogs.com/f/pamela-june-ray-no-vacancy

https://www.dailycomet.com/story/news/crime/2019/07/06/looking-for-answers-in-pamela-june-rays-1992-disappearance/4743936007/

https://www.newsherald.com/story/special/special-sections/2019/07/17/cold-case-search-for-body-unsuccessful-in-pcb-cold-case/4671252007/

https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/years-ago-this-week-georgia-mother-disappeared-her-children-slept/bHDWApPaVO3tfhZgA3xobO/

https://mysterydelver.com/not-checked-in/

https://websleuths.com/threads/fl-pamela-ray-36-panama-city-aug-1992.74266/

https://vocal.media/criminal/mother-vanishes-while-kids-sleep-in-the-car

https://www.middletennesseemysteries.com/article/498/panama-city-florida-pamela-j-ray

He was a lawyer, an activist, a wild, larger-than-life figure who thrived in chaos. Then, one day in 1974, Oscar Zeta Acosta boarded a boat in Mexico—and vanished. No witnesses. No body. Just whispers of murder, political revenge, or a man bold enough to erase himself. Half a century later, the question still lingers: what really happened to Oscar Zeta Acosta?

Listen as we dive into the Mazatlán, the case of Oscar Zeta Acosta, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube with full video: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/what-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-owes-to-oscar-acosta

https://lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/brown-buffalo-and-chicano-movement-los-angeles

https://resolve.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-american-literature/appendix-biographies/F86930D98266E3F0192A417813106CD8

https://lataco.com/the-rise-and-fall-oscar-zeta-acosta

https://evergreenreview.com/read/the-marginalization-of-oscar-zeta-acosta/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/oscar-zeta-acosta

https://www.brownbuffalofilm.com/

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qB3hkbAjy8SSQJvJUTw6m

https://www.bluelight.org/community/threads/weirder-than-fiction-the-disappearance-of-oscar-zeta-acosta-a-k-a-dr-gonzo.904262/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jun-05-ca-56718-story.html

https://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/oscar_zeta_acosta.html

https://colorlines.com/article/watch-new-doc-explores-life-and-disappearance-oscar-zeta-acosta/

On the night of July 6th, 2019, in western Nebraska, a young father seemingly vanished into thin air. 

He was Chance Englebert, a 25 year old welder, cowboy and newlywed - gone without a trace.  Earlier that day, Chance had been visiting his in-laws when a casual round of golf turned tense due to some remarks about his new job that angered him.  Upset, he told his wife he wanted to go back home to Wyoming.  When she didn’t agree to leave town - he got out of the car and walked away.  Alone. On foot. With a storm brewing overhead.

Surveillance cameras later captured him walking through town, looking down at his phone, like someone reading a map. He sent a final text that didn’t sound like it came from him. And just like that, no one ever heard from him again.

His disappearance ignited one of the most baffling manhunts in the region. Drones, cadaver dogs, hundreds of volunteers on the ground, on horseback, and ATVs, 

across 2,400 acres.  Yet despite all the efforts - they’ve never found a single clue. There are no answers.

Listen as we dive into the Nebraska, the case of Chance Englebert, and how to stay alive on vacation.

Do you have a story to share? Send your email to [email protected]

We're on YouTube with full video: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLastTripPodcast

Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thelasttripcrimepod/

And join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLastTripPodcast

Theme Music by Roger Allen Dexter

Sources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1dwwo1m/the_disappearance_of_25yearold_husband_and_new/

https://wyomingtruth.org/still-no-answers-for-family-of-missing-moorcroft-man-as-reward-expires/

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/06/30/new-leads-but-not-much-progress-finding-moorcroft-man-missing-for-5-years/

https://missingpersonscenter.org/missing-persons/chance-englebert/#google_vignette

https://www.facebook.com/findchanceenglebert/

https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/lead-chance-englebert-disappearance-case/

https://charleyproject.org/case/chance-leslie-englebert

https://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/episodes/2019/10/28/episode-197-chance-englebert

https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP59295

https://missingpeopleinamerica.org/former-rodeo-star-loving-husband-and-father-vanished

https://disappearedblog.com/chance-englebert/

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/missing-in-america/family-fears-worst-two-months-after-wyoming-man-chance-englebert-n1052206

https://medium.com/the-wicked-truth/newlywed-wife-asks-for-death-certificate-three-days-after-husband-disappears-7fa3e1a4955e

https://www.knopnews2.com/2021/07/06/no-closer-two-years-later-search-chance-englebert/

https://wyomingtruth.org/arm-bone-recovered-in-nebraska-not-remains-of-missing-moorcroft-man/