Hey everyone, before we get started, a quick note that this episode does contain explicit language as well as some descriptions of violence.

It may not be appropriate for kids.

Are we recording with audio?

I'm gonna text Bill.

Hey all, Nate here. You just heard me talking with our audio recordist Brooks Lester.

This comes from last October when we were in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

We were also with our NASCAR reporter Michelle Martinelli, who you remember from episode 1, as well as our co-producer Pat Shanahan, who we flew out from Arizona to help us for the trip.

Apologies for the audio. We were in a hotel lobby, and we were also all wearing masks.

He was great with me on the phone, but clearly I have not done enough to worry if you're home.

Don't blame yourself.

Whatever my method was is not working, so let's try something else.

I don't want to talk. He didn't want to talk. He wouldn't be texting me.

So let's get you caught up. This was a few months into reporting when a group of us had all traveled to Spartanburg to finally meet Bill Rossi and Tina Rossi Grimes in person.

Yet on our way down, Bill had texted us and told us that they no longer wanted to be a part of our podcast.

I was for sure frustrated because I just made multiple people fly thousands of miles during a global pandemic to apparently hang out with me in the lobby of a Hilton Garden Inn for a few days.

But mostly I was confused. The Rossi's had been nothing but open and welcoming to us up until this moment. Now they appear to be cutting us off.

I wondered if something had changed, or maybe if someone had gotten to them. I wanted to know what was happening. Then my phone buzzed.

Bill Rossi's calling me. Good morning Bill. You can call me Nate. No Mr. Scott. How are you doing?

Bill and I talked. He made clear his family was having second thoughts about everything.

You're looking at how he disappeared and what transpired and where he went and why we can't find any closer to that no matter where we've been.

Freedom of information act, FBI whoever. I mean we've been digging 37 years and every door is a dead end.

Our arrival in Spartanburg had made something clear to the Rossi's. As Bill told it, they realized they were asking us to dig up the past.

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