Darkcast Network, Indie Pods with a Darkside.

I'm going to be there one day, mom. That's what Joe Pickler told his mom as a kid when they were watching the Academy Awards together.

While many kids have said something like that, Joe actively worked to make his dreams come true.

A role in a local commercial led to gigs in TV and movies, and his star was on the rise.

After returning to his hometown of Bremerton, Washington to finish high school, Joe was making

plans to return to Hollywood and pick up where he left off. But in the early morning hours of

January 5, 2006, he made a phone call to his friend

and then vanished. When his car was found days later, police said the evidence pointed to suicide,

but that didn't sit right with his family. For 20 years, the Pickler family has been saying

that there's more to the story of Joe's disappearance,

and that there are people out there who know more than they're saying.

When a person goes missing, there's a special kind of pain in the not knowing.

I want to tell the stories of those who never came home.

Today, I want to tell you the story of Joe Pickler.

I'm Conan Gallagher.

And I'm Ethan Flick.

And this is, and then they were gone. Welcome back, everyone back. Thank you for joining us once again. I'm Kona. And I'm Ethan. And we're the husband and wife team behind this podcast.

Each week, I tell you the story of an unsolved missing person's case.

Ethan doesn't know anything about the case going into the episode and is here to provide his reactions and questions in real time, hopefully asking some of the same ones you have

at home.

Now, this is a case that I was shocked I had never heard of before.

Yeah, uncharacteristically, you gave me a little insight into this before recording the episode.

...