Vanished After Leaving A Bar: What Happened To 27-Year-Old Gretchen Fleming?

today's episode of True Crime with Kendall Ray is brought to you by Sundays for dogs and thanks to their support and support from viewers like you today I'm able to make a donation to The bring Gretchen home GoFundMe so as you guys know I have 10 pets I have four dogss and my biggest boy right here in the back is Oakley he's a great panes come here buddy and he's the sweetest man and he absolutely loves our sponsor for today as much as we do and that is Sundays for dogs he sees the bag and

he's getting excited Sundays is fres fresh dog food made from a short list of human grade ingredients it contains 90% meat 10% vegetables and 0% synthetic nutrients and dog parents report noticeable Health improvements in their pups including softer fur fresher breath better poops and more energy when switching to Sundays and we have definitely experienced all of that and not only do we love Sundays because it's easy for us it's literally just open the bag pour and serve don't have to refrigerate it but of course we love it because our dogs love it and who better

to show you that than Oakley himself come here Oaks you want some Sundays of course you do the reason that you don't have to refrigerate it is because of the air drying process and every order ships right to our door so you never have to worry about running out of dog food again from dog owner to dog owner I truly recommend Sundays I think you will absolutely love it if you make this switch and Sundays is offering a great deal to all of you you can get 50% off your first order when you go to

Sundays forogt KR or use the code tckr at checkout [Music] hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Ray thank you so much for joining me today and if you are new then welcome so happy to have you here now today we are going to be talking about a case that is very frustrating as they all are um it is one that definitely needs awareness this family has been incredibly strong incredibly inspiring to me we're going to be talking about 27-year-old Gretchen Fleming who disappeared back in December of 2022 now this is a

case that has been requested numerous times in my case suggestion form which is always linked below if you didn't know but as soon as I looked into it I knew it was one I wanted to talk about she vanished back in December of 2022 so it hasn't really been that long and it's one that I think really needs to stay in people's minds so that we don't forget and hopefully in the end there can be Justice for gret and Fleming and for this family now one thing that is kind of uplifting about this case and

I don't often get to say this but the police have really done a fantastic job Gretchen's family has been very vocal that they feel law enforcement has done everything in their power to get Justice for Gretchen and for their family and that's really really a breath of fresh air to hear and I wish I could could say that about every case I cover I really do most of the time that's not the case but yeah it's it's nice to hear of examples where police really are doing everything in their power to get this solved so

as always I want to start out here by telling you more about Gretchen so Gretchen Eve Fleming was born on December 24th 1994 Christmas Eve and spent her entire childhood and young adult life living in the small city of parkerburg West Virginia and it was in parkerburg that she and her little sister Emma were raised by their father David their parents got divorced when Gretchen was still pretty young and both she and Emma did not seem to have a close relationship with their biological mother that being said David truly stepped up as a single father

and raised those girls with everything he had and he said that raising them in parkerburg was great for many reasons but especially because the community was extremely close-knit and everything felt super safe and from everything I've heard about Parkersburg West Virginia it really seems like there's a lot of good people and a lot of good Community there growing up David and Gretchen used to love riding around on their bikes together and they even had a tandem bike that they would ride where he would pedal for them and she would steer and I loved hearing that

little detail but it wasn't just she her dad and her sister forever when Gretchen was 14 David introduced her and Emma to the woman that he'd been dating Jennifer now Gretchen didn't necessarily welcome her stepmom with open arms at first which I think is really common I relate to that I had you know hesitations when my dad started dating as well and now I love my stepmom so much but I definitely definitely gave her a hard time when she first came into our lives so I think this is really common it can be really difficult

to see your parent recouple and get used to but even though they had a rougher beginning Gretchen really grew to love Jennifer she really wasn't upset about it for very long and over time the two of them ended up getting really close especially after Jennifer and her dad got married and especially once the two of them had a baby together plus Jennifer had three-year-old twins from a previous relationship so Gretchen really learned to love them as well and they seemed to become a really seamlessly blended family now as for who Gretchen was she definitely seemed

to be someone who had a good sense of herself and that was extremely apparent through her sense of fashion Gretchen loved thrift shopping and putting together outfits that she visioned in her mind so that she could you know really Express herself outwardly and she could almost always be seen styling these outfits with her favorite Doc Martens a few other things that also really defined Gretchen was her love of reading her creativity and of course her passion for makeup as well she had really perfected the red lip winged eyeliner combo which was often a staple in

her makeup routine and can be very difficult to do I absolutely can never get the red lip down I still canot not really do winged liner so she had a lot of talent for makeup and I'd say another thing that also really defines Gretchen is her free spiritedness Gretchen was someone who took life one day at a time she didn't take anything too seriously and while she didn't have some grand plan for her future she knew that she'd accomplish whatever she set her mind to and I think the best way to put this and this

is something her dad said that I really liked is that Gretchen didn't live to work she worked to live she may not have been the most career driven person but she always had a job and she always made enough to get by and take care of herself I do want to be clear though Gretchen definitely had Big Dreams for herself and one of those dreams was to one day move to a bigger city life in a big city really called to her and it was a dream that she ended up making a reality Gretchen graduated

from Parkersburg High School in 2013 and sometime after that she packed up her stuff and set out to start a new chapter of life in Raleigh North Carolina and it sounds to me that she was spending her early 20s living a life that she had always wanted she was exploring a new place she had new friends had a new job she even met a boy which went well for a while but then things took a turn now there's actually not much information out there about Gretchen's relationship at this time but we do know that at

one point she decided to move to South Carolina with him and things were going great for about a year but then at some point they took a turn and they broke up her stepmom Jennifer says that at the time she was actually really confused by the breakup because at one point they were even talking about getting married and Gretchen seemed really happy but for whatever reason they ended up parting ways and obviously going through a breakup No Matter How It Ends can be really really difficult and if that wasn't hard enough on Gretchen something else

really awful happened during this time and I mentioned earlier but she did not have a great relationship with her biological mother and around this time her mom was put on life support and I don't know exactly why I'm not sure if she was sick or maybe got hurt I have no details as far as what happened there but Gretchen was next of kin so she at such a young age ended up having to be the one to make the impossible decision to remove her from life support and I can't imagine what a toll that would

take on someone I really can't even picture what it would be like to have to think through that and experience that and it really seemed to take a toll on her and according to her stepmom and her father it it definitely did in 2022 Gretchen was in a really difficult period of her life and she knew the best way to help her get through it was by moving back home to parkerburg so in May of that year she did just that she went home but rather than moving back in with her dad and Jennifer Gretchen

actually decided the best place for her to stay was at her grandmother's house house who lived only one city over in Vienna West Virginia Which to be clear is less than a 15-minute drive and the reason that she chose to stay at her grandmother's was because there were a lot of younger children living at home with her stepmom and Dad and obviously she loved her siblings and loved her dad and stepmom but she felt like her grandmother's house would be a more peaceful quieter place for her to really heal and Gretchen actually did have a

sort of tentative plan of what she wanted to do when she was in a better mental place she was hoping to become a flight attendant which based on what I know about her feels like it would have been a great career choice so Gretchen was back in parkerburg from May to early December and things seemed to be generally going okay I mean this was a really hard time for her but she seemed to be getting back on her feet she ended up getting a job working in retail and had also rekindled some of her old

high school friendships so for the most part she'd gotten into a pretty good routine now there are two important details to note in this case one Gretchen did not have her driver's license she was 27 at the time and just never really saw a need for it I mean some people just don't want to drive and second of all her grandmother Louise had a rule at her house that if Gretchen was not home by 10:00 p.m. that she couldn't come into the house the door would be locked that was kind of her curfew and obviously

she's 27 so it's a pretty early curfew but it was something that Gretchen understood I mean her her grandmother was older and didn't want her coming in at all hours of the night and Gretchen had plenty of friends couches or beds that she could sleep at if she was going to be having a later night out and I've definitely seen people online talking about this and being pretty harsh on her grandmother for it I personally think it's a fairly reasonable rule I mean it is her home she understood the agreement she was grateful to be

staying there and just understood the rules if she was going to be staying there and actually there's a third thing that's important to note as well and that's that it wasn't unusual for Gretchen to be gone for multiple days at a time like I said Gretchen was a very freespirit person so there were times where she would crash at a friend's house for a few days before finally returning home to her grandmother's she did always keep her cell phone on her but it's not like she constantly kept up with her family every single day which

of course like I said she's 27 years old so I don't think it's bizarre or unusual that she wasn't in constant cont with her family her dad says that the two of them always had an open line of communication but it wasn't like they were texting back and forth every single day and if Gretchen ever didn't respond she would normally respond the next day or whenever she got around to it and like I said during this time May to early December about 6 months this was perfectly fine Gretchen was working spending time with friends and

family and really working on herself and trying to heal from everything that she had been through but that all changed on December 3rd of 2022 when Gretchen left her grandmother's house and never returned a little more than a week later on December 11th David and Jennifer were at home when they heard a knock on their door and it was David's mom Louise Gretchen's grandmother and this wasn't just a normal visit Louise had come over because in the last few days she had grown concerned about Gretchen who had never come home from work on December 3rd

after she dropped her off now like I just said it was not uncommon for Gretchen to not come home she had actually told her grandma that she wasn't planning on coming home that night at all which is why it took Louise a few days to really become concerned but when 5 days turned to six and then six days turned to seven without hearing from her Louise knew that this was beyond the norm and she wanted to ask David if he had heard from her and I'm sure we all know where this is going at this

point but neither David or Jennifer had heard from Gretchen in days so they tried texting and calling her again and again but they were equally as unsuccessful her text went unanswered and her calls went straight to voicemail which led them to believe that her phone had likely died and there was just you know something in their guts that told them something was not right so David and Jennifer at that point decideed to get in their car and start driving around downtown Parkersburg to see if they could find her or at least find someone who knew

where she was and because they knew the names of a few of her favorite bars they decided to go to those first which included one one bar called Front Row Bar and Grill and they did get some answers there but definitely not the answers they were hoping for when David pulled up a picture of his daughter and showed the bartender and asked if she had seen her she said yes Gretchen had come in the weekend prior but then the following morning a guy came in and dropped off her purse which instantly made David and Jennifer

feel sick to their stomachs and that feeling of course only got worse when they opened her purse and saw all of her belongings her phone her wallet her ID everything was still in there and all that this bartender could really confirm as far as information was that they were at the bar and that she was with the guy who had dropped off her purse the night before all that the bartender could provide in terms of information was that the guy who dropped off her purse the following morning was the same guy that she had left

with the night before and of course this really confirmed all of Jennifer and David's worst fears her purse had been there for an entire week and if Gretchen was able to go back and get it they believe that she would have and that's not to say that they had lost all hope at this point but this was definitely a wakeup call that something was truly wrong so from there the two of them continue to drive around downtown parkerburg and at some point they come across some of her friends and unfortunately nobody had seen or heard

from her but they mentioned that on the night of December 3rd they remembered that she left Front Row Bar and Grill with a guy and that he was driving the two of them to another bar called my way Lounge so of course David and Jennifer then go to MyWay to check it out for themselves and as luck would have it someone happened to be there who remembered seeing Gretch in there on the night of December 3rd now my way is a popular spot because they host karaoke nights and on December 3rd it just so happened

to be one of those nights and so on December 11th when her dad and stepmom were there the DJ who hosted the karaoke remembered seeing Gretchen and not just that but the DJ also was able to provide the name of the guy that she was with that night a guy named JN now neither David or Jennifer had ever heard of a friend of hers named John so at that point they decided to go home and plug in Gretchen's phone and see if they could get any information that way and while they were super lucky that

her phone wasn't passcode protected they also weren't able to figure out any more information about where Gretchen could be all they could confirm by doing this was that December 3rd was the last night she made contact with anyone and after that it was radio silence and so the following morning David and Jennifer woke up early and went to the police station to report Gretchen missing and I can already see the comments now I know people are going to be super judgmental that her family didn't act sooner and of course I'm sure that they regret not

acting sooner but pointing that out does not help the situation at all and keep in mind she was 27 it was common for her to go days without communicating with her family and even if that's not common for you and your family we're talking about Gretchen and her family here and you know people are going to leave these comments no matter what there's nothing I can do to prevent it other than trying to delete and block the ones that are hurtful to the family because a lot of families end up watching the content that I

put out and it breaks my heart when they see people judging them and being mean because yeah it's so unhelpful it does nothing to help the case at this point um but at the end of the day I know that the majority of you are much louder in a positive way so I hope that those comments are just overshadowed also it's important to note that her father had just started a new job right around this time and didn't even realize that Gretchen hadn't texted him back and it was so normal for her not to text

him back that he just didn't think anything of it but from the day he figured out that she was missing he has done everything in his power to try and bring her home but yeah I just like to remind people that when we're talking about these cases we're talking about real families with real pain and they can very well read what you say so just think before you type you know it's not that hard anyways though let's get into the investigation which kicked off right away like I said Gretchen was reported missing on December 12th

to the parkerburg police department and the chief of police knew that this would require require all hands on deck W Gretchen was of course an adult with the ability to leave if she wanted in this case the chief actually recognized what David recognized which was that she would never have left without her phone wallet and ID that detail alone was enough to suggest that Foul Play could have occurred so he didn't hesitate to start investigating her disappearance with the full force of his Department that day a detective named detective Zimmerman who I'm going to be

talking about a lot called around to local hospitals and jails just to make sure that she wasn't there but ultimately there was no sign of her so at that point they turned to the community they end up posting a photo of Gretchen to their social media and asked if anyone knew any information about Gretchen where she could possibly be or if you had seen her that night to please come forward and within just 24 hours there was a th000 shares on this post which I think for a small City really speaks volumes people who knew

Gretchen and people who didn't know Gretchen were deeply imp imped by her disappearance and as you're going to hear me explain they really banded together to show their support for this family now there actually was one person in particular who was hit very hard by seeing this post on social media and that was John yes the same John I mentioned earlier who as of right now in the case was the last person known to be with ketchen as soon as he saw the police department's post he reached out to law enforcement right away and he

was 100% transparent with them he explained that he had been with Gretchen on the night of December 3rd and confirmed that they were at Front Row Bar and Grill and that he drove her to MyWay lounge and I'm sure you're wondering about the purse and he also had an explanation for that according to John Gretchen left her purse in his car when they got to my way lounge and then once they got into my way Lounge they actually went separate ways according to him he sat on one side of the bar she sat on the

other and then when the night came to an end he went to look for her because he had promised her a ride home and her purse was still in his car but he couldn't find her so at that point he says that he started driving around downtown Parkersburg looking for her and he wasn't able to find her so at that point he ends up going back to MyWay Lounge to see if maybe she went back looking for him but she still wasn't there so he just figured that she had gotten a ride home with someone

else but the problem was he still had her phone and her purse in his car so he ends up explaining to detectives that the following morning he dropped it off at Front Row Bar and Grill because he knew that she was there a lot and that maybe she would go there looking for it now if you're wondering why he didn't just take the purse to her house I don't believe he actually knew where she lived and the address on her ID hadn't been updated since she had just moved back so it seems like he just

felt like the best chance of getting it to her was bringing it to a bar that he knew she often went to and before I go any further I know what a lot of you are probably thinking and you're not probably thinking good things about JN just given the fact that he was the last known person to see her as we know in this case however I just want to scream from the rooftops here that Gretchen's family feels very strongly has been very vocal that they do not believe that he had any involvement in fact

David said that Jon seemed just as horrified and scared as he was and he's Gretchen's Father John truly felt terrible that he wasn't able to find her that night that they had even gone separate ways to begin with and if you're still not buying it I'll explain more about why David has such confidence in John on December 13th the MyWay Lounge actually reached out to David on Facebook telling him that they had surveillance footage from that night if he wanted to come in and look at it and of course he wanted to review the footage

so he and Jennifer got there around lunchtime that day and started reviewing the footage and when they did they realized that everything John had told them was true the two of them had shown up together and then they sat on opposite sides of the bar but here's what was interesting when Gretchen left that night she did leave without him but she wasn't alone at some point in the night Gretchen can be seen on the footage sitting up at the bar when a man approaches her and this man appeared to be from the gambling room and

they began talking and eventually he buys her a drink shortly after this they go back to the gambling room together David says that based on the footage he believes that his daughter and this man were in that room for anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes and after they came back into the view of the camera they left the man is seen walking out first and gretan is directly behind him unfortunately I can't play you this footage because it is part of an active investigation and they don't want to release it and possibly compromise the case

which I completely understand but both her family and law enforcement confirm that this is exactly what went down and what they also noticed was that this was a case of terrible timing at the same same time that Gretchen and this man had emerged from the gambling room and were leaving the bar John just happened to step into the bathroom and that's why he didn't see Gretchen leave and this is why he was so confused when he was walking around at the end of the night and couldn't find her and even went the extra step to

go out and look for her downtown and of course all of this footage was released to detectives the same day which brings up the question who is this mystery man cuz now we know the last person seen with her was not John it was this guy in the footage and luckily we actually do know who this guy is because a bartender from my way was thankfully able to identify him as Preston Pierce but this wasn't anyone that the Flemings knew and it wasn't anyone that any of her friends seemed to know either and thankfully detectives

were able to speak with Preston right away and I mean right away they talked to him on the 13th which keep in mind was only a day after she was reported missing so when I say they were working fast I mean they were working fast and this guy Preston did not give off innocent Vibes when he was questioned Preston shared that he did meet with Gretchen that night and that he did leave with her but according to his story he dropped her off in downtown parkerburg and that was it now because this is an active

investigation the Parkersburg police department has not been able to disclose the location he said he dropped her off but they've definitely done their due diligence searching that area they have combed through as much security footage as they could get their hands on and by the 14th they believ they had enough footage to reconstruct his movements and ultimately none of this footage ever showed Preston dropping Gretchen off anywhere it shows him leaving the bar and then going directly home however I do have to note that it's not impossible that he did drop her off somewhere because

they they weren't able to put together enough security footage to have eyes on him the entire time so yeah it's possible he dropped her off but I'll let you guys decide what you think about that and before you decide I guess I should tell you what we do know about Preston Pierce almost as soon as David and Jennifer heard the name Preston Pierce they of course wanted to do their own research into who this man was and what they saw was heartbreaking not just for them and for Gretchen but for all the other women who

he has harassed and stalked now Preston's sketchy pass goes back pretty far starting with the fact that his name is not Preston Pierce it's actually Daryl lot now the exact time frame for when he changed his name is unclear but it has been said that he changed it after he was fired from multiple police stations after inappropriate behavior towards women and that's right this dude was a cop and while we don't have specifics on what exactly happened back then there have been numerous women who have come forward accusing him of doing some very inappropriate things

it turns out that since working in law enforcement and changing his name Preston got a job as a food delivery person and this is very scary but he would use this job as an opportunity to meet and eventually stalk women because he would end up getting their addresses and their phone numbers and as soon as he would drop off their orders he would text them here's an example of one of these situations this is from a woman who had firsthand experience with him before Co hit in 2020 he was my door Dash driver one night

when I ordered food to the little gambling place that I worked at he came back hours later to tell me I was beautiful and sat at my bar I was so creeped out that a door Dash driver would do that that I texted my boss to see if she would come down and sit with me so I wasn't alone with him we had to tell him to leave because he sat way past closing time he found me on Facebook that same freaking night and would message me all the time to find out if I was

working he would come and sit in the parking lot until after after I left my boss ended up coming back at closing time every night for a week straight to make sure I got safely to my car and stuff and then Co shut down the bar for a while and I never saw him again I got such bad vibes from him then another woman has come forward as well to say that she met Preston at a bar and woke up the next morning in his bed with no recollection of what happened or even how she

got there and these are just two stories of many and the more stories like this that Jennifer and David came across the more and more confident they feel that he could be the person responsible for Gretchen's disappearance based on these anecdotes Preston does not seem to do well with rejection and doesn't seem to believe that the law applies to him so again you guys can come to your own conclusions on what you think about him and his potential involvement after hearing all of that but yeah her family is very steadfast in what they believe but

anyways though let's get back to the timeline because things were still moving quickly on December 15th only 3 days after she was reported missing Detective had secured not one but three search warrants related to Preston Pierce one for his home one for his car and one for a storage unit that he rented and if anything was found during those searches we as the public haven't been made aware of it but I do want to be clear that that doesn't mean that nothing was found in fact we know something was found because there was some sort

of evidence that was sent to the state forensic lab and they did testing however we don't know what the test results showed again this is an active investigation so law enforcement is keeping a lot of information behind closed doors to protect the sanctity of this investigation which I totally understand and I'm sure they have a lot more than what we know and in fact Preston's name was not even released by investigators his name actually got leaked in an article after the search warrants were executed and that's how people found out that it was him and

I also want to point out that the Flemings are completely fine with this information being kept behind closed doors they have repeatedly shown their support publicly for how the investigation is being handled and for law enforcement which like I said in the beginning of this episode is really a breath of fresh air to hear they wholeheartedly believe that investigators are doing everything to get this case solved and I believe the same detective Zimmerman once said this he can hide he can run but eventually we're going to get him personally I really believe that he means

those words and so does her family and the investigative efforts don't stop there so that brings us to January of 2023 and at that point it was announced that police were searching for a person of interest vehicle and as we know now that was the vehicle of Preston Pierce which is a black Nissan Rogue and around this time investigators also shared that the person of interest was no longer communicating with them so if you're not feeling totally sketched out by him at this point maybe that will push you a little further over the Edge but

just a few days later this family went through something so so terrible when a false piece of information was released by the media and this is something that happens far too often it always pisses me off so much I I really don't understand how people don't have any Integrity they just want to be the first to jump on a story on January 6th 2023 it was reported that a body was found in the Ohio river and that the remains were possibly that of Gretchen Fleming this report had no real confirmation that it was her yet

they reported it anyways which as you can imagine was totally shocking to her family in more ways than one I mean it made sense that it could be her body in relation to where she went missing from but they just didn't understand why they were finding this out through the media and not through detectives and what makes this even more sad is that it was actually Emma Gretchen's younger sister that came across this report and she ran upstairs to show Jennifer and David and as soon as they saw it they were totally shocked scared and

confused as you would be and so immediately David calls up detective Zimmerman and he was also very confused he had been working closely with other police departments to try and find Gretchen and he also didn't get why nobody had told him about this discovery but like I said earlier this was misinformation it was false and the body did not belong to Gretchen which is just so so maddening it truly pisses me off and I really do see this all the time I mean it's just you must have zero Integrity as a journalist to put something

like this out there I know there's benefit to being the first to report on a detail in a story like this especially something like this but this is not the type of information that you can get wrong you need to be 100% certain before you report something like that not only does it make you look horrible as a journalist but also how hurt ful to this family do you truly have no morals I mean there are real consequences to these actions especially for the family I mean to be on this roller coaster when they're just

trying to figure out what happened to get some answers thinking that maybe they're going to get these answers and also being afraid of getting those answers as well I mean it's just such a horrible thing to toy with emotions this way especially for a family who is missing a loved one who's going through constantly the possibilities of what could have happened just the fear that would lie within you thinking of everything that your loved one could have gone through where they could possibly be if they're still alive if they're unsafe if they're gone you know

it's just it's so evil it it really really makes me angry I can only imagine how difficult this time must have been for them and how angry they must have felt but this didn't stop them they they still held on to hope and continue to to fight for Gretchen so 1 month later in February the community came together with law enforcement to search the area of mountainwood Park more than 500 people gathered and they covered a ton of ground but unfortunately it doesn't appear as though anything related to Gretchen's disappearance was found that day and

then another big search was done in a well in the Ravenswood area after detective Zimmerman got a tip that her remains could have been left there they first tried to snake a camera down inside to see if they could see anything and when they couldn't they called in outside help to have it drained but despite their efforts over the course of a week nothing ended up being found in the well additional wooded areas and Riverbanks were also searched but yeah unfortunately nothing was found and one thing that I found to be really interesting is that

this community actually decided to hold off on organizing any of their own searches because they were concerned that maybe they would come across something and potentially accidentally tamper with evidence which I thought was really smart and they have truly let law enforcement lead the way when it comes to Gretchen's disappearance which often times communities really do have to take the lead because law enforcement is not being helpful or just straight up not doing anything and so they have to take that risk and do the searches alone but the parkerburg community has really yeah only joined

in when they were asked and believe me the police have absolutely asked for their help and they've shown up every single time to lend a hand and really the community support for Gretchen has seemed to be a huge driving force in their family being able to maintain strength from the moment she went missing everyone from loved ones to complete strangers physically showed up in support of the Fleming family where countless people stopped by to say their prayers I mean people who didn't even know her and then 4 days later a candlelight vigil was held where

everyone came together again to pray and it was a night filled with of course lots of sadness but also a lot of love and an old friend of Gretchen a guy named Jake has actually been the one to organize these and he has said that even though he and her didn't stay close after high school he knew that he wanted to help as soon as he found out that she was missing and he wasn't the only one who wanted to help Gretchen's old high school principal Kenny deas came up with an idea for her sister

to design a t-shirt with everything on it that Gretchen loved and he suggested that they sell it in order to raise money for the reward and I love when families do things like this it's such a great way to get everyone involved in further spread awareness and so on May 25th a Press Conference was held to keep hope alive and also reassure the public about law enforcement's efforts but during this press conference they also unveiled the new t-shirt design my name is Kenny deas and principal of Parkersburg High School our our reason for Gathering today

Gretchen Fleming was a 2013 graduate of Parkersburg High School and for the last 6 months we we've not really known what's happened to her roughly 6 months so we want to provide an opportunity today for the family to speak mute to speak for any reason possible any way possible that we can find out more information about Gretchen good evening I'm Louise slimming one of Gretchen's Grand mothers I want to thank all of you for coming out today and I want to thank you for all the prayers all the thoughts everything you've done to try to

make this easier on us I I also want to say at this time that we could not be prouder than we are of the parkburg police department our chief and de de uh detective Zimmerman couldn't do any more than they're doing and I know some people get flustered they get on Facebook and they start this h why don't you do this why don't you do that you've only got 24 hours in a day and they're working around the clock believe me so please if you can't do anything else for us please keep your negative thoughts

about our police department and what the family's doing to try to find Gretch into yourself everyone's invited you know entitled to their opinion that there's some circumstances that you should not be blasting people and you have no clue what these places are going through and what they're doing on the shirt that Emma designed which I think is is so beautiful she Incorporated books for Gretchen's love of reading Doc Martin because they were Gretchen's favorite shoes music because Gretchen loved music and flowers for Gretchen's love of Nature and beauty and Emma was unable to attend the

press conference but Grandma Louise was able to read a letter that she had written and I want you guys to take a listen about two weeks ago Kenny deos our principal PHS approached me with a wonderful idea to design a t-shirt that represent Ed Gretchen to help bring Gretchen home the idea behind the shirt was to capture Gretchen as she truly is through those of us who know her so well so my sister Gretchen Fleming has a fabulous voice and you can see a microphone and little pieces of uh music because she wrote songs and

she suang songs and she loved to sing my sister wants to see the world and all its wonders if you ever saw my sister around you would always see her with the book in hand and she would would be without a doubt wearing her dark Martens the only thing I F to capture within this shirt was a cup of coffee so my idea was to take these things and put them all together books with Doc Martin Standing On Top with a rep representation of Life coming out of them which are the flowers in the top

because that's what greten brought when she entered a room she brought life she brought passion she brought joy and she always knew how to make you smile too many right now Gretchen is just a face or a picture that you see on the internet or on a poster but in many to many others she's a friend she's a daughter she's a granddaughter she's a niece she's a cousin to me she's my sister my best friend my inspiration so when you think about Gretchen I ask that you think about her in this way as a real

human with friends and family and unfinished goals and aspirations she is so many things that cannot be captured in a simple t-shirt design but if you feel so inclined I ask that you purchase this shirt to show your support and I beg if you know something that could be the least bit helpful even the smallest thing please please call detective Zimmerman at 3044 41072 thank you Emma fling and I'm sure you guys are wondering if you can buy this shirt I'm not sure if they are still selling it I couldn't find anywhere to buy it

online but there are ways that you can still financially support this family which I will get to here in a bit and of course David also spoke that day and it was an incredibly emotional speech it's it's tough to listen to but very important especially when he's speaking about the fact that the community had come together to help raise the reward to a whopping $100,000 which for a small community is just amazing hello my name is David Fleming Gretchen is my daughter as many as you know Gretchen has been missing for 6 months now and

we will not stop looking and searching for her until she is unfound and a lot of you are helping with that and I appreciate that I'd like to thank Mr Damas for arranging this platform for keeping her name out there she was a graduate of PHS she is a gentle kind soul and who had never hurt anyone I really want to thank the community for coming together for our family the passion donations just being there for us thank you this community has been amazing I really want to thank Parkersburg Police Department chief board detective zman

who all of them working around the clock with this investigation this is an active investigation and they won't quit until the answers are fil to what happened to Gretchen in conclusion I'd like to announce due to the overwheling kindness of local business owners here in this community we'd like to they would like to donate another $35,000 towards the reward that that's going to be raising the award to $100,000 for anybody that has any information knows something a snidbit heard something please come forward we want answers we will never stop Gretchen I love you we will

find you I promise we will seek Justice against anybody involved in her disappearance to the fullest extent of the law and in the months that have passed since then the Fleming family has continue to show their support for the parkerburg police department and their investigation who have promised that they will not rest until they get Justice for Gretchen or get answers for this family and in June of 2023 they announced that their investigation had not slown down in the slightest and I thought this next detail was really really special and not something I hear very

often but on the 1-year anniversary of her disappearance Police Chief Matt bour shared that he keeps a candle in his office from Gretchen's vigil as a tangible symbol of this case which he said isn't even close to cold he also said there's not a day that goes by that she and her family are not on my mind and the minds of the men and women of the parkerburg police department detective Zimmerman comes in every day and that's still his priority also multiple agencies are now examining evidence and as of today Preston Pierce Still Remains a

person of interest and I really really wish I had more updates for you guys since then um but it has been quite a while since there have been any updates made publicly however I do strongly feel that the momentum in this case is still going and I think we're going to possibly see Justice and at least get answers one day David has described all of this as a living Nightmare and really how else can you describe going through something like this and their family are just trying to take things day by day and keep the

hope alive he says that the holidays are particularly difficult of course because Gretchen's birthday was Christmas Eve and I hope that they don't have to go another holiday without answers Gretchen seemed like such a lovely person I loved hearing about her free-spirited energy I really loved what her dad said about her working to live not living to work I think that is actually a really good quality to have and many of us could learn from that it seems like Gretchen brought nothing into this world but good energy and a beautiful smile and I just really

really hope that it's not much longer until this poor family can get answers and get justice so today in her honor I of course want to make a donation to her family's GoFundMe it was set up by them I will have it linked below if any of you are wanting to make a donation as well big or small and I totally understand if you're not able to I know times are tough out there for a lot of people but if you are able to make a donation to this family I'm sure they would very much

appreciate it no matter the size of course if you're not able to make a donation there are other ways to help and that's as simple as sharing Gretchen story especially if you live in this area um and want to just get the word out Word of Mouth although it does seem like the community is very very aware but if you're not in the area um and you want to share this video or really any post maybe her missing person's flyer or someone else's coverage on Gretchen story just get the word out there spread the awareness

um that's one of the biggest ways that you can make a difference I really have hope that this case is going to be solved and I am very much looking forward to the day that Justice is served for Gretchen I really really really wish I had more information to share on this case but I just want to send my best to the Fleming family and you know you guys are amazing to stay as strong as you have and this Community behind this family you guys are amazing huge shout out to the parkerburg police department uh

yeah it was it was really refreshing to hear how helpful they have been and so determined to get this family justice but um that's going to be it for me today guys I definitely want to hear your thoughts so let me know below I will be back next week of course to discuss another case with you but until then please stay safe out there [Music]