David Shier Part 3: Hollow Answers
The Vanished Podcast
Wondery
4.5 • 15K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the past two weeks, you’ve heard the story of David Shier, who vanished from Trinidad, Colorado, in February 2022, and the exhaustive search that followed. Despite the urgency, no clues surfaced. Dave's family was forced to reexamine every detail, lead, and possibility.
On the morning of Dave's disappearance, he asked his wife to drive him to meet someone about a property. But who was that person? Why was his truck parked oddly, so unlike him? And what about the neighbor’s report of a white truck at the house around the time he disappeared?
From the beginning, Dave’s loved ones felt law enforcement had dismissed his case as a medical emergency, simply an older man who had wandered off and passed away. However, for the family, when they didn't find him during the searches, they believed he deserved a thorough investigation.
The last confirmed sighting was a trail camera image of Dave walking away from his home. For more than a year, the case stayed cold. Then, something unexpected happened. A grave was opened in Starkville Cemetery. It was supposed to contain one man, who had also been missing, but inside were two bodies.
The coroner claimed both were buried in 2019, well before Dave vanished, but the man who performed the exhumation, a seasoned professional, said the second body seemed too intact to have been in the ground that long. That stopped the Shier family in their tracks.
Dave’s wife watched the exhumation footage and couldn’t shake the bad feeling that overcame her when she noticed the outline of legs in a body bag that looked familiar. Could it be Dave? Could he have been buried without anyone telling his family?
No matter who the second body was, what was unfolding at the cemetery disturbed the family deeply. The secrecy, inconsistencies, and lack of care were unacceptable. They believed no one should be buried without dignity, and no family should be left in the dark. So the Shiers acted, fighting for truth, transparency, and change.
Last week, you heard how the Colorado Bureau of Investigation opened an inquiry into what happened in Las Animas County. This week, we take you inside that investigation, what it uncovered, how it ended, and where it leaves the Shier family now on their quest for answers.
If you have information about the disappearance of David Shier, please contact the Las Animas County Sheriff's Office at 719-846-2211.
If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's these little rural family cemeteries everywhere. |
| 0:13.3 | My sister and I got a series of really interesting phone calls after that happened. |
| 0:17.8 | This person had said, well, we have a family cemetery, and I'm fairly certain that something like this happened in our family cemetery, and it's not your dad, this happened a long time ago, but just that it happens. |
| 0:31.3 | People go missing, and they're putting these little family cemeteries, and you'll never think to look there or even have access to look there. |
| 0:39.3 | This is also that case that we can't talk about because it's still open. |
| 0:44.3 | We're trying to get it wrapped up so we can get it into the DA's office. |
| 0:48.3 | Not the DA's office. You understand he has a very long history with the coroner as well as a major conflict of interest. |
| 0:55.0 | And I understand that, but unfortunately, that's how it has to be. |
| 1:00.0 | Over the past two weeks, you've heard the story of David Shire, who disappeared from Trinidad, Colorado in February 2022, |
| 1:08.0 | and the extensive search efforts that followed. Despite the urgency and scale of those |
| 1:13.7 | efforts, not a single clue turned up to explain what happened to Dave. His family was left with a |
| 1:19.1 | haunting silence. They had to go back to the drawing board and reexamine every detail, every |
| 1:24.8 | conversation, and every lead. Dave had asked his wife that morning to drive |
| 1:29.4 | him to a property that someone had called him about. But who was that person? Dave's truck was parked |
| 1:35.4 | strangely, which was out of character. And then there was a report from a neighbor. A white truck had |
| 1:41.0 | been seen at the Shire residence around the time he went missing. From the very beginning, Dave's loved ones felt that law enforcement saw his disappearance |
| 1:49.0 | as the case of an older man who simply wandered off, possibly had a medical emergency, and |
| 1:54.0 | passed away somewhere out of sight. |
| 1:56.0 | But for them, it wasn't that simple. |
| 1:58.0 | They believed his case deserved a more thorough investigation. Dave's trail |
| 2:02.7 | went cold after he was caught on a neighbor's trail camera. That image of him walking away from his home |
| 2:08.0 | was the last confirmed sighting. And for more than a year after that fateful day, that's where the case |
... |
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