The Murder Police Podcast
The Murder Police Podcast
Where Is Rhonda? The Mysterious Disappearance of Rhonda Day | Part 2 of 2
What happens when the threads of a loved one's life suddenly go cold? We grapple with this harrowing reality as we unravel the case of Rhonda Day's unexplained disappearance, a narrative that is as confounding as it is heartbreaking. With Rhonda's car found abandoned and critical evidence preservation steps missed, the anguish experienced by her family is palpable. Our discussion reveals the exhaustive efforts made to locate vital video footage that could illuminate Rhonda's last known movements, emphasizing the potential of technology in this painstaking quest. Each turn in the search brings more questions than answers, spotlighting the unique complexities of adult missing person cases and the resilient determination of a family in the face of uncertainty.
This episode paints an intimate portrait of Rhonda Faye, from her distinctive blonde hair and green eyes to the sunshine tattoo that could help bring her home. The absence of her phone, iPad, car keys, and most tellingly, her purse, casts a shadow of mystery over the investigation. As we share the desperate measures taken by her family and their push for community involvement, we extend a heartfelt invitation to our listeners—any information could tip the scales towards resolution. We close with a direct line to the Louisville Metro Police Department, a beacon of hope for those eager to assist. Through this emotional dialogue, we not only seek to elevate Rhonda's story but also to ignite a flame of hope that might lead to her safe return.
Previously covered by Vanished Pod: https://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/episodes/2020/3/9/episode-215-rhonda-day
and by Cason Hudson on YouTube: Where is Rhonda Day? Missing in Louisville, Ky.
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and then I said this I may not have. I should have, but I said this may not be important to you and I feel like we're filler news, that nothing's going on. So you put me as a filler. It may not be important to you, but it's the most important thing in the world to us.
David Lyons:Absolutely.
Melissa:So if you can't have it to be of importance, then I'm not interested. Warning the podcast you're about to listen to may contain graphic descriptions of violent assaults, murder and adult language. Listener discretion is advised.
Wendy Lyons:Where is Rhonda Day? Got a series of days in there where that vehicle may have been there and I've seen a picture of where it was at. It was right off of Cane Run, if I remember correctly.
David Lyons:Yes, it was.
Melissa:You almost hit it Now we did have somebody, though, that did contact us and say that they were going to a birthday party and did see that car Sunday afternoon.
Wendy Lyons:Okay, there Sunday afternoon, yeah, so I don't know.
David Lyons:Yeah, you know, maybe we saw it, but we did not recognize it at the time.
Melissa:No, we would have recognized it. Yeah, could it have been somewhere?
Wendy Lyons:else when we searched. I don't know and you'll know everything too, yeah. Have you ever had this happen? You're looking for a blue car and that day you see every blue car. Oh yeah, yeah, that's something that even when I was still a cop as soon as they put an attempt to locate out on something.
Melissa:Something that we did try. We went door to door. Okay, and we were trying to find somebody that had a video camera that could have spotted that car. If they would go back and look at it and see if they spotted that car when it was parked there, who was driving it, or if they could zoom in and see if it was a male driving it, female driving it.
Wendy Lyons:But we didn't have any luck. Yeah, and a couple things on. That is that. Uh, today you probability would probably be higher more people because of the way the internet's advanced and technologies.
Wendy Lyons:You probably have that too. And something else too that I think is is neat that you all did that is it doesn't hurt for families to go out and do and and I know we live in a world where we have a lot of expectations on law enforcement and that's reasonable. But at the same time, the more people that are out hunting and looking, the more likely we are to gather something if that makes any sense.
Wendy Lyons:So hats off to you all for looking for the car and then going door to door and trying to exhaust that possibility. Like I said, these days you probably have a higher probability of that. So the car is located. Am I correct in the fact that it didn't get towed or processed?
Melissa:No, it did not. No, they just called A policeman, called my sister and said we found her car. You need to come get it.
Wendy Lyons:Okay, gotcha.
Melissa:So that's when my nephew, her son, kind of set up surveillance on it, hoping it's you know. And of course I need to mention that her brother and her son, when they said to come get it, they went to it and they started looking through it to see if they could find any hints. But then that was already tampering with evidence.
Wendy Lyons:Well, yeah, I wouldn't say tampering with evidence, because it wasn't a criminal offense.
Melissa:Well, yeah, or that was messing up what they could have found out.
Wendy Lyons:But here's the thing is, that is again, uh, when we, when we don't do this for a living, we don't know. So, yeah, that's completely understandable.
Melissa:But then, um, when he was on the like I said, had it under surveillance he heard some kind of noise and he called a cop and a cop come and said they didn't, uh, take thatounded. And he said no, and they said, well, they should have impounded it right away. I got you. Yeah, that's a little frustrating, yeah.
Wendy Lyons:And again, I have no idea. You know, I know that sometimes with adult missing person cases there's this gray area as you're gathering these facts that make them. I'm not making excuses for it, but I know that you're looking for things again and we're going to keep covering those things that say this one probably should be looked at differently and there's a fuzzy time period in there. So, yeah, I mean that would have been good, you know. Look at seat position fuel tank levels, things like that.
Wendy Lyons:But again, nobody should be wearing any guilt for going through the car. I'd have gone through the car, right like that and uh, but again, nobody should be wearing any guilt for going through the car out of going through the car, right, right, because we're curious and we're really hungry to find that out. So she vanishes and the last place we have her is on mariana drive at her friend's house. He's the last person that we know of that so far that saw her. Um, how's he been? And again, we're not. We're not going to name him because he's not you know, he's not a known suspect.
Wendy Lyons:That's it exactly, and so we we got to be fair to people, but has he? Has he been very helpful in the search for?
Melissa:um, not really, not at all. He has not participated in any of the searches. We had two searches. He has never called to say have you found her? You know here. Let me give you some information. The last thing I can tell you is so he wasn't present in help at all.
Wendy Lyons:Right Gotcha, and some I hate to say it, but some people just don't care. That's the world we live in I know.
Wendy Lyons:But you know, of course, I always think, if it was my friend, I'd done every, I'd turned every rock, exactly and that's okay to think that way, because I think that we have to compare people's behavior to what most people would do. So what's that look like? So you reported her missing, I guess with, uh, the police in lebanon junction, in lebanon junction first, okay, gotcha, yes, and then with the car being found in louisville, I'm going to assume lou Louisville police took the investigation, and that's how that works too. Is that wherever the preponderance of the evidence?
Wendy Lyons:is goes, and not to mention too that Louisville will have a few more resources than Lebanon Junction. Lebanon Junction is a very good police department. I've worked with a lot of people and trained some other people before. Very good PD. But you know, when you get into an area like Louisville the resources are a lot deeper and not well. Exactly what's it look like in those initial days. So you find the car. What kind of efforts did everybody make to try to find her?
Melissa:I know you were looking for the car. Well, like I said, we went door to door and then we also did a search down by the river and down at the boat docks and everything on foot. And there's two aerial searches and two foot searches.
Wendy Lyons:Gotcha.
Melissa:I did want to mention that we did have a lot of help from the Crystal Rogers search team there we go, they came down to help us, which was very much appreciated.
Wendy Lyons:What a great group of people. I mean. I love when people get involved. Again. More boots on the ground, more, yes.
Melissa:More right, yes but it didn't turn up anything. And also, um the police, they did do uh, took a cadaver dogs right to his, to the friend's house and to his truck, and there was nothing found okay, gotcha, so we've got that, so we aerial searches, foot searches, cadaver dogs. I mean, we went to the Internet, we had podcasts, we had put a flyer out to everybody, shared a flyer with everybody.
David Lyons:Right, we had it out on the news twice.
Melissa:Yeah, we've had some of the local stations.
Wendy Lyons:They didn't cover it a lot, but yeah you know you know the media gets what they can get, and if something big's going on then they'll drift to it.
Melissa:So it's just an experience with not too long ago. Oh yeah they were wanting to do a. They contacted me wanting to do a story on her again and I said okay, I would do it. So we had it all set up what day it was going to be. The night before she said her boss was putting her on something else. I said okay.
Wendy Lyons:Well.
Melissa:I said, well, get back in touch with me. And I thought they probably wouldn't. But she did, got back in touch with me, said we'd do a story on it. Then the day of I think, she contacted me, said her boss put her on something. And then I said this I may not have, should have. But I said this may not be important to you and I feel like we're filler news that nothing's going on. So you put me as a filler. May not be important to you, but it's the most important thing in the world to us, absolutely.
Melissa:So, if you can't have it to be of importance, then I'm not interested. Yeah, and that's just how I felt, you know, because I don't want her story to be filler news.
Wendy Lyons:Sure.
Melissa:Because it is a real thing. She's really missing. There's a family tore up, you know, and where she's at I don't know, but there's just not a day that goes by that you don't hope that you'll hear from her. Exactly or you'll see her or you'll hear something you know. And it's not just her, it's every missing person.
Wendy Lyons:It's true, and there's so many. Every missing person, it's true, and there's so many. Yes, there are Again. Wendy, who's not here today, breathes and eats this whole thing, and one of the things that, years ago, I got across to her is how many people are missing. And what's frightening is how many people are missing that just never were reported Exactly, when people just assumed family or friends assumed that they'd drifted off. It's scary.
Wendy Lyons:Yesed off it's scary, yes it is. It's frightening. And again here we are. She's a person. She was loved by many and loved people, obviously.
Melissa:I mean just a compassionate maternal person. And see, that's where I feel like that. I guess the world feels you Is. They think that if it's a person that had a problem, they're not worth finding and they're wrong. I think that's something that goes around and it's so untrue. I agree, everybody deserves to be found.
Wendy Lyons:And I think that's gotten worse is, as a society, we have people that can be incredibly judgmental and there's people that can wash their hands of something, and we call it victimology and risk factors. What they do is they wash their hands of any interest in with phrases like well, they had that coming, or you know you, you effed around and found out. Whatever they use, uh, that's so wrong and and usually and I would never wish this they'll never understand that unless they're happy to then, and then the world then we won't be able to do enough, or nobody will be able to
Wendy Lyons:do enough for them, and it's sad. Now I can tell you, though, that, after doing the job, is that we always used to take our victims as we found them, and there were plenty of times that me and the people I worked with and the detectives in Louisville and Lebanon Junction right now that, however you walk, that walk really doesn't matter. When somebody hurts somebody else, take somebody else. That's an offense against the whole community, because we're all at risk with that exactly and and again.
Wendy Lyons:You know better than I that if somebody has harmed ronda, then they removed the possibility of her completely turning her life around that, that gotuished and that's horrible.
Wendy Lyons:That's not tragic, that's just evil is that a lot of people deal with issues and they change. But if we take away, if somebody takes away the opportunity for them to change, that's the devil. That's the devil at work. So anything new and maybe the other new stations will come around I mean I would recommend taking what you can get from them. I know that they're right you know, and whoever this person was, she's probably a fine person, but she's got a boss like oh, I told her that.
Melissa:I said I understand that you have to do your job and do what the boss says, sure, but I said I'm just asking you to understand that it's making me feel like that. It's just, you ain't got nothing else to broadcast, so let's do this yeah and I said that's not how I feel about it. I feel like it's important.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, that I. I don't know if sometimes they're prepared for the emotional rawness that they run into it. I just don't know it. Uh, I can share. One time I remember I was on the phone with a reporter, with the herald leader, many years ago on a, and she had gone to a victim's house and what I heard on the other end of the phone was her getting thrown off the porch.
David Lyons:Oh, wow.
Wendy Lyons:And again she's covering a story, but I don't think she was prepared for that. The rawness, the rawness of it that I'm going to knock on this door and where people are in that moment and even detectives will tell you that we're used to it it beat up on us. I mean, I've had people yell at me and scream at me and that's fine.
Melissa:Because you realize where it's coming from. That's it, yeah.
Wendy Lyons:And so, hopefully, I have no doubt that whoever's working the case now in Louisville is probably of that same nature- is that they're probably waiting for the thing they need to move it forward. Whatever that is, let's go there for a minute. If you could speak to the community in this area, what would you all ask them to do? I'll start with Melissa and then Destiny you two. What?
Melissa:would you ask people in the community to do Well at this point, since it's been almost six years to always keep their eyes and ears open? Yes, you know, always try to and be ready to come forward.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah.
Melissa:You know, so many people are afraid to come forward or they think it's not big enough, it's too small of a thing. But one small thing could be what could tie the whole thing together.
Wendy Lyons:Thank you.
Melissa:So I would urge to come forward anything you know, because somebody knows something, that's it. She didn't just disappear.
Wendy Lyons:No, you know somebody knows something?
Melissa:Did somebody slip and say something to somebody else? You know, my main thing would be just urging them to come forward and to realize that nothing's too small.
Wendy Lyons:Thank you, and that's true, and especially six years out.
David Lyons:Right.
Wendy Lyons:The detectives would appreciate anything. They would appreciate a little hearsay, they would appreciate anything that turned into a lead of something Real quick too. Just what was her physical appearance? Do you remember?
Melissa:She's probably about 5'3", 5'4" something like that, maybe 5'4", about 180 pounds.
Wendy Lyons:Gotcha.
Melissa:Blonde hair, green eyes.
David Lyons:Had a tattoo that said was it sun, but spelled differently.
Melissa:Sunshine. She had a tattoo that said sunshine. Like S-O-N, like her sun was her sunshine.
Wendy Lyons:Where was that tattoo at? Do you remember?
Melissa:I believe it was her leg.
Wendy Lyons:I'm really not quite sure. I think it was her leg, but the tattoo's a tattoo. Ears pierced, I think, if I remember correctly. Yes, her ears are pierced, sometimes wore thick flaring glasses or contacts.
David Lyons:I don't think so. No, I don't think so. I don't think she wore glasses.
Melissa:She probably had sunglasses on all the time as we.
David Lyons:Last we heard she was wearing black. Was it black?
Melissa:flip-flops. Grandma Hodges, she was dressed in black Gotcha the last time that.
Wendy Lyons:What kind of clothes did she usually wear when she was knocking around? Anything that you remember.
Melissa:Shorts and tank tops. Yes, there we go, just comfortable stuff. Yeah yeah, she never did like to dress up or anything.
Wendy Lyons:Gotcha. That's important too, and I know that the iPad is gone. What else do we think is still missing?
Melissa:Her phone, her iPad and her car keys. What's her purse sound? So they're not sure she even took her purse that day, but with those items gone, see to me, if she had just left to go somewhere and to be gone and she took those things she would have been using them. The phone company said there's not been any kind of activity on either of them since the last phone call.
Wendy Lyons:She made was to my mother that the night before Gotcha. You know, one thing I thought about too is that I think I told you when I was working, when we were planning getting together today, is when I was looking at maps and things like that and did that, zoom out on Google Earth and saw the river right there. And growing up in Louisville and I actually boated on the Ohio River for years, upriver from that is that river immediately I thought what a great place to get rid of things, exactly Because that river consumes things and it moves quickly under tow and everything. The first thing when I saw it, I just had the eebie-jeebies about that's so close and the car was probably just several hundred feet away from where the river is and access. And again, on the YouTube channel I'm going to put quite a lot of images so people can see what that looks like on there too, so we have missing property that eventually could still be found.
Wendy Lyons:We might stumble across that too, destiny. What would you say to people in the community?
David Lyons:If you have any tips or leads, please reach out to LNPD Please.
Wendy Lyons:It makes it harder on the family when we don't know anything 100% and, by the way, too, is that let's talk about this Is any tips? We really want to go straight to the detectives at LMPD, Louisville Metro Police Department. We don't want them to come through the podcast. We don't want anything getting in the way of this and whatnot. And the phone numbers that I have for them is the police department itself is at an area code, 502-574-7111. And then they have an anonymous tip line, which is handy. It's 502-574-LMPD, and those tip lines are nice.
Wendy Lyons:We used to use them back in the Lexham Police Department and still do To where if people have that information or they believe and they're uncomfortable coming forward, geez, oh Pete, let's do it anonymously, Right it is? I mean, we love witnesses and we love testimony, but this case is about.
David Lyons:Bringing justice.
Wendy Lyons:That's it we need to. It's like a buddy of mine.
David Lyons:We need to bring Rhonda home.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, we do. It's like a buddy of mine said one time is that it's like a sweater We've got to pull that first snag to get the yarn going, and that can be something that somebody has. I would ask people to do the same thing. I would even suggest to people and I've said this before that um and I don't know how people carry that on their heart If they have intimate knowledge about this- that's what I was thinking on the way up here.
Melissa:I thought you know.
Wendy Lyons:I know they do.
David Lyons:Whoever?
Melissa:knows something. I have to believe that when they lay their head on their pillow at night, they got to be thinking.
Wendy Lyons:And again, yeah, why you know now we hear sometimes people are afraid, and that's true in some exceptional cases, but that's usually not it and I'm with you. I will say this that when people carry that, they're wired differently and they're wired really similarly to anybody who might've done something wrong here. I think whoever carries that information better be real careful and check their character. And those people that carry this destiny, they're going to stores and restaurants and church with us, to our left and our right. I've said it before in a couple of cases, and I'll continue to say it, that I don't know how people are religiously built, but we don't know when we're going to leave this earth. And I got a bad feeling that if you left the earth with this on your heart, that kind of information, that's it. I don't think it plays well, right, I think you're a lot like people who actually do the deed.
Wendy Lyons:So people need to people if they're listening or they know somebody. They've got to work their conscience.
David Lyons:Just come clean with whatever you have to say, Please. It would bring our family justice. Rhonda, if you're out there, we love you.
Wendy Lyons:There we go, Melissa. What would you say to?
Melissa:If I could say something to Rhonda.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah.
Melissa:First, please come home. You know, that's the main thing we would want out of any of this would be for Rhonda to come home safe, absolutely. But of course, if she doesn't come home, I would just like I say appeal to the people to please because I know there's somebody out there- Somebody. There's somebody that could help bring closure that, if she is out there and she's okay, that could let us know, right? Um, of course, we've heard all kinds of things. They think she's like hiding out somewhere I think I saw that theory somewhere yeah did she have a pending court appearance or she did have she?
Melissa:had got stopped and had found um test and drug paraphernalia, okay, um, and somebody said something about that. She was hiding from that. But uh, according to my sister, they got something that said that after so many years they drop all that. And it was like five years, I think, gotcha, and so that would all be dropped. What would be stopping her from coming home?
Wendy Lyons:True, and hiding that well is actually more difficult than people think.
Melissa:Rhonda could have done it.
Wendy Lyons:She could have Right.
Melissa:I mean she'd have to check on her cat or check on her grandma. I mean there's no way.
David Lyons:To me.
Melissa:I always felt insulted when somebody said she was just hanging hiding out somewhere, because I know she would never do that to her family. She would never. Because she told me like shortly before she disappeared. She said you know, I love my mom so much. She said if something were to happen to her they'd have to scrape me off the floor. Well, if she loved her that much she wouldn't have done this to her.
David Lyons:Exactly. You know, Rhonda, if you're out there, just know Grandma lives somewhere else now.
Wendy Lyons:Okay, yeah, that's good to know If there's something to that good deal.
Melissa:Yeah, my mom just turned 91. She's always saying that she just hopes Rhonda Faye comes home before she dies.
Wendy Lyons:Yeah, yeah. What a burden to carry on your heart, right? Well, listen, thank both of you for taking the time to meet with me. Again, wendy, sorry that she's not here. Hopefully we get a resolution sooner than later. All right.
Wendy Lyons:Hopefully we get a resolution sooner than later on this and if we do get updates and everything, we'll make sure that the audience of the Murder Police Podcast we'll funnel that out and make sure that they're aware of those updates. Hopefully we get really good news one day. If not, it's really good news. Hopefully we just get answers Exactly Good deal. Thank you all both. One day, if not, it's really good news. Hopefully we just get answers, exactly good deal.
David Lyons:thank you all both even if it like gives answers to other people yes, yeah, that that's one thing.
Melissa:Good, good point destiny is that, uh, so many other people are dealing with missing people right now is keeping hope alive yeah, I would like an awareness you know to go out about missing people and how nothing, not as much, is going on to help find them as what I feel like this should be it's hard, you know it is it's it's bad, because I think I know there was times we felt like you know, why can't we get anything done?
Melissa:why can't we can't find her? Why don't the news station say more? Why don't people help us more? Why? Don't you know, just always feeling like because in our minds we want to do everything we can right sure you know we want to find her right you know, please help us right you know, and I think that, uh, the families often are felt unhelped and like they don't know where to turn or what to do, and I think awareness of missing persons need to go out for all those who have missing loved ones.
Wendy Lyons:Absolutely true. Absolutely true Because it's one of those things that none of us signs up for. A class on this. It just happens and you're in the dark and the frustration level is incredible too.
Melissa:Well, I mean, I admit I look at things a lot different now than what I did before Before. You know, you kind of listen to things, you think what happens to other people but not to you Right, right. And then, when it happens to you, it's like I used to always watch Dateline and everything, but now I watch it with a whole lot of different perspectives.
Wendy Lyons:From the victim side, yeah, from the surviving victim side. That's a good point. Well, good deal. Thank you all again for meeting.
Melissa:Thank you very much.
Wendy Lyons:We'll stay in touch, for sure.
David Lyons:Thank you for doing this with us, david.
Wendy Lyons:Yes, no, thank you for trusting us to produce the piece and put it together, and I'll tell Wendy you said hi.
Melissa:Okay, please do. We'd like to meet her, yes please do we will.
Wendy Lyons:we will for sure. Yeah, we'll get dinner. I think that's a wrap.
Melissa:All right, that's a wrap.
Wendy Lyons:The Murder Police Podcast is hosted by Wendy and David Lyons and was created to honor the lives of crime victims, so their names are never forgotten. It is produced, recorded and edited by David Lyons. The Murder Police Podcast can be found on your favorite Apple or Android podcast platform, as well as at MurderPolicePodcastcom, where you will find show notes, transcripts, information about our presenters and a link to the official Murder Police Podcast merch store where you can purchase a huge variety of Murder Police Podcast swag. We are also on Facebook, instagram and YouTube, which is closed caption for those that are hearing impaired. Just search for the Murder Police Podcast and you will find us. If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe for more and give us five stars and a written review. On Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your podcasts, make sure you set your player to automatically download new episodes so you get the new ones as soon as they drop, and please tell your friends.
David Lyons:Lock it down, Judy.
