Thank you for the update Grungster! I've also pasted the latest detailed update directly from Reddit below.
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Posted by
u/MementoMori29
23 hours ago
Update on Tod Motor Doe Status
Hey all:
Both
u/sonnyphono and I feel like scoundrls for just announcing this case solved and disappearing for a while. However, there's still a lot of moving parts waiting to settle and our priority is being respectful and doing right by TMD's family and everyone who helped us in the investigation.
Over the last 4.5 years investigating this case, Sonny and I have interviewed well over 100 people related to this case, built meaningful relationships with law enforcement, nurtured and relied on confidential informants and had the privilege of working with incredible volunteer researchers, genealogists, archivists, translators. We're trying to figure out the best way to fully tell this story and obviously the wishes of TMD's family take priority.
Sonny and I traveled to Vegas last month to wrap up some aspects of this case. We met with the coroner investigator, visited former employers, landlords and C.I.'s who helped us in the investigation,
lightly trespassed at the Tod Motor Motel, which is now boarded up and ghoulish. We sat and drank at a bar where TMD used to drink. We strolled the neighborhood with people who knew him. We found new people in the community who remember him.
A few things we can share at the moment:
- TMD was a German-born man who lived the majority of his life in Germany before moving abroad. He had a habit of picking up and leaving -- and I mean truly dropping everything (possessions, employment, relationships) and moving onto to something new. His identity was confirmed via DNA. He was in his mid-40's when he died.
- TMD was an incredibly intelligent individual. Sonny and I are still in the process of locating family abroad, but the most common refrain we hear from people who knew him was that he was very smart. He was a skillful, cunning, deeply adaptable person, and it's become very apparent that even in his illicit activities there was a streak of genius.
- Sonny and I have been able to confirm three (3) places of residences in the Las Vegas for TMD. We were also able to find evidence of his presence in at least five (5) states. Still, large swatches of his time in America are mysteries. TMD was an incredibly savvy identity thief and we are still trying to make sense of the web he left behind.
- Sonny and I were able to discover the exact month and year he arrived to the USA (and under what passport) and we shared that information with the DHS, helping them close up their independant investigation. He came to the United States in the autumn of 2001. However, we have evidence that he visited the USA on the east coast in the early 1990s.
- We've had the privilege of getting to know TMD's former wife and daughter, who are incredible, kind, good people. They've shared not only insight about TMD, but former possessions, home videos, photos, even TMD's old report cards from when he was a kid. Through them, we know that TMD has at least two (2) other children on a whole other continent and Sonny and I are in the process of identifying and contacting them.
- TMD's laptop -- that famed computer -- was found in storage at the Clark County Coroner's Office after all. How 'bout that? As I write this, the computer is (hopefully) being packed and mailed across the world to TMD's next of kin. What's on it? Well, the letter for one. And potentially a trove of other information. We were informed that the computer isn't working and "flickers on and off", however the hard drive should be fine. Whether that information is shared with Sonny and I is up to TMD's family. It would be nice for our (endlessly burning) curiosity, but it's up to the family.
- TMD was a long-haul truck driver. That notion started as a hunch, and then an educated guess, and then a valid assumption based on deduction. And sure enough, it's true. He worked as a long-haul truck driver for a major common carrier, for at least a year before his death. He apparently informed people that he ran routes "a lot to Mexico." It's likely he traveled all over the United States. We were informed by people who knew him abroad that TMD claimed that he always wanted to be a truck driver, as it would provide him an opportunity to see the world.
- Remember that access card to a military base? Well, we got more information on that recently. It still may have been a red herring, but it is ******* weirder than you can ever imagine. And now knowing the type of person TMD was, his possession of it raises a million questions.
As I mentioned before, Sonny and I are still attempting to figure out the best way to share information. The more we try to close this case, the more we stumble upon more webwork, more bizarre things and more mysteries TMD left behind. One of the first things told to us by a family member of his was "[TMD] would have absolutely loved that you were attempting to solve his cold case. He had that sort of personality."
For Sonny and I, our goal is to hopefully continue this passion of ours, take on new cases, and help provide closure to grieving and distressed folks. Helping solve this mystery is one of the best things I've ever done in my life. But for right now, we got to see through this one.
Expect more updates soon.
Why is his name being withheld still?