a short note before you listen to this podcast. The following episodes document the events surrounding a recent missing persons investigation. The investigation was conducted by the family and friends of the missing person, a private investigator they hired and myself a journalist with daily communication with the police. As I speak, the police are closing their case, but they're closing it unfinished and the families involved, they're unhappy. This is the full story. Not according to my truck. You have beaten me. I'll get out of my truck. I'm wanting me. Have you took in my Rolex? You took my Rolex chasing. You doing my Rolex? You beat me up.

Everything hurt. Just getting this very disturbing recording is of 25 year old Daya Shabani, an aspiring actress who moved from Macedonia to Hollywood to pursue her dreams of becoming, as she put it, a different kind of star. But just three weeks before I'm recording this day, issue body went missing, vanished without a trace from outside her apartment on Hollywood Boulevard, right alongside the legendary Walk of Fame, a young and beautiful woman with dreams of making it in Hollywood, now missing the 25 year old seen in this photo with Kanye West had been in L. A for lesson two years. Friends are now desperate for answers after she disappeared on Friday. Something is going on with her. We don't know where she's You're just so sad way just hoping she's alive. I don't know where a day it is,

but I have a good idea who does. He's been on the run since the day he disappeared, armed with two guns and a metal club. Right now I'm sitting outside the apartment where he's believed to be staying, and it's my turn to confront him. I'm alone. I'm not armed. I've never been in a fight in my life. And I'm regretting this Chapter one. The call e remembers like buckling. And I'm like looking down at the pipe and I'm like, I don't know, I could just see. I literally can see the run unfolding. I'm like, I'm gonna hit this wall.

I'm gonna travel this far. I'm like looking at it and everything got really still. The voice you hear is that of snowboarder Shaun White. We're in the offices of his talent agency, and I'm interviewing him about his Olympic win on the table rests his Olympic gold medal at this exact moment, just five miles away on Hollywood Boulevard, a day Shabani is disappearing, possibly even worse. And here I am, freaking out over a tiny piece of metal. So this land and perfect and I'm like This is a God. You could do this and I just gave it a little more moves than normal. And then I'm riding away like Holy, just, you know, when the Olympics it's over.

But this is my job. Rolling Stone assigns me to do things like write motorcycles with Tom Cruise or go to rocket factories with Elon Musk or shop for Pampers with Snoop Dog. And then I write about what it's like hanging out with him. What I don't do is investigating crime and hard news at missing people. At least I didn't not until I received this

call, So I wanted to ask you a question about this case that I'm working. Yeah, so you might have seen it in the in the news. I don't know. But it's another missing persons case, earning the day of Shabani. She's a girl from Macedonia. She's been here off like for about 18 months, Hired by her family. She was in Hollywood anyway. She was last seen on Friday. And, you know with which this Friday or the Friday like that before? No, this Friday. Okay, Yeah. Wow,

That's Jayden Brandt. I'm not sure how to best introduce Jaden, because our relationship is a little odd. About a year earlier, a 20 year old student went missing in my neighborhood in Malibu, California, and as a community member, I volunteered to help find her. Jaden, the former police detective who is now a highly in demand private investigator, was working with the family of that missing student in Malibu. And I guess, is a new father. I felt the need to help the missing woman's family and also just make sure our community was safe. So I began reaching out to Jaden. Probably initially is a pest, but eventually he began calling me for advice.

Eso

This call was another one of those conversations. It just happened to be about a new case.

Basically, at this point, I mean, we have no leads, no suspects. We do know that she was last seen on video surveillance in Hollywood. Gotta write your apartment around 11 a.m. She had last communication with friends at around 2 to 30. We know her apartment door was left unlocked. The realize thing is that there appears to be some usage on her computer that night, but no phone activity. Eyes

J even spoke. I looked through a day as social media. It is, in a word, glamorous. Their professional modeling shots, exotic European beach vacations and pictures on the red carpet at premieres and events. In short, it looks like a Hollywood dream, And many of the inspirational quotes underneath the images are also about dreams such as this one from Michael Gambon. Dreamy kids become actors,

don't they? I don't know. I mean, we're trying to get some press going on it. I don't know. You know something? Maybe write a story for Rolling Stone or, you know, one of those compelling case. She's young, beautiful, aspiring actress. You know, I think I mean, obviously you're open to find out what you thought.

I told him I'd think about it and to keep me in the loop way found these flyers at several businesses here at Hollywood and Wilcox, where police say she was last seen. Her name is today a Day of Shivani. Beautiful inside and out, say her close friends, who also say they're worried sick over the 25 year old she's been missing since the morning of February the 23rd. That's when she went to the rise and grind coffee shop and vanish. There's absolutely no evidence that she is a voluntary missing that she's a runaway. Jaden Brand is the private investigator hired by the Shabani family to try and find a Daya. The 25 year old's mother flew into town from the Republic of Macedonia a couple of days ago. There's nothing yet to indicate foul play, but friends suspected obvious. Giovanni is being held against her will. A CZ time continued to pass. She's been gone for more than a week with no leads and no developments. It's been 11 days since anyone has seen or heard from a day of Shabani initial press coverage started to fade. No one has actually seen her in almost two weeks. The police had very strangely asked the family not to do any interviews so they'd spoken to no one and frustration was mounting.

This is another case and the media has died down. Yeah, just like that pressure of police, you know, they were much more active, engaging, doing ship when it was all over the night.

As J. Jin went on, describing the family's plight, I wondered to myself why I hadn't gotten involved yet. I felt like one of those people who sees a car crash just rubber necks and hold up the traffic. Maybe there was something I could do to help. Maybe unlike the Malibu disappearance. If I really started reporting on this for an article or a piece or a podcast, I could make a difference for this family. Little did I know that this small conversation would soon turn into a serious commitment that would put me and my family at risk. In fact, I've recently been told that if I release this podcast quote, bad things are going to happen to me in a sense of a threat on my life or my safety or that of my family. I've decided obviously, to go ahead and release this. I wish I could give you a good reason as to why I've made that decision that I've discussed it with my family, and I suppose it's that if someone is threatening your life to stop you from doing something,

it's a good sign that you're pretty close to the truth. I'm a big supporter of Ring Ring. In addition, to be one of this podcast, first sponsors is also making my home safer. I'd literally have ring doorbells and floodlights on all of the doors to my home and from every angle. I can literally see who is approaching my home at any time at all hours. And not only that, with the ring app, I gave someone else who I trust my passwords so they can see as well. In case I need to know, anything may sound like I'm paranoid, but if you're doing this podcast and especially the next season of this podcast, you're dealing with some people who are capable of anything. So ring helps you stay safe and connected your home anywhere in the world. And also it's just convenient.

If there's a package delivery or a surprise visitor, you get an alert and be able to see, hear or speak to them all from your phone as a subscriber to this podcast. There's a special offer on a ring welcome kit available right now at ring dot com slash lost. The kit includes a video doorbell and a chime pro, which is just what you need to start building a ring of security around your home today. Go to ring dot com slash lost. That's ring dot com slash lost. Chapter two Zest for Life This is Neil and me, you and that This is Alex who works with me. Thanks for taking, I Think something. I'm at the Rise and Grind coffee Shop on Hollywood Boulevard. It's the last place a day of Shivani was seen, and I'm meeting her mother, Nora,

for the first time. And formally, I suppose, beginning this investigation just one day has passed since I told Jade and I get involved. It is trying to get me caught up to speed as quickly as possible, which means speaking directly with the day is family and friends. Together, we walked back to a day's apartment to speak. I'm nervous because I don't know what to say to someone who's in Nora's position with so much fear and sadness and uncertainty about her child, especially since just a few days earlier, it was a day is 26 birthday and her loved ones didn't have their friend, their classmate, their daughter to celebrate with comics with flowers Friday. And also when we came into the apartment with flowers because she always vice so right and they brought them together with them. But I don't know which they Thursday or Wednesday. We sit down at a small breakfast table,

and today his mother begins the first interview she's ever done about her daughter. This is you've been saying. You've been staying in a daze apartment now, Yes, and it's difficult, really difficult. I'm not from here, so it's it feels kind of weird. I'm going through her stuff. I'm, uh, staying in her room, feeling her energy, feeling her smells every day. But she's not around. And she wanted me to come here desperately.

She invited me so many times, and now I mean, I'm here and she's not around. I mean, such a difficult situation for me. It's a nightmare. Probably probably want you here. But once you hear not that somewhere else, anyway, to be close, we're very, very connected. Very. I mean, I know she somehow knows that I'm here. I'm convinced that I'm the only person.

She wants to see them. It's uncanny to look at Nora, her face, her lips. Even her gestures are almost exactly like what I've seen of the day is she moves with solitude, a mournful nous around the studio apartment. Occasionally she goes to the window to smoke a cigarette, and she looks forlornly over the dirty and desperate streets of Hollywood. It's warm inside, but nor is wearing a sweater and a jacket that she doesn't take off. There's a poster of Leonardo DiCaprio and willful to Wall Street. On the wall, there's several photos of Justin Bieber scattered around the bed and Nora take special care to show me the positive, inspirational slogans that emblazoned on everything from photo frames to paper weights on a day's desk. But most notable is a white board above the bed, on which a day it has written phrases like the source of all creation is my role model,

and then below that, she's written just three words in black marker zest for life through. This is a they're from very early on. She had this question before being on the stage for expressing herself for reaching out beyond her small community beyond bored borders. I mean, if you look at her diaries recently we were moving and we found her diary from a very young age short she was drawing. She was writing like, I want to be a star. I want to be even this picture here that she bought from memory when you came on board to be a star, I'm going to be a star. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's an instagram to show there was a picture of her next, like artwork where it said something like, You know,

be a star in a different way or I'm gonna be a different star. Outside a day's apartment is the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame, the famous landmark with the names of a list celebrities pressed into the coral pink stars on the sidewalk. This, of course, was a place where a day wanted her name to be. One day she was feeling so great, she was basically walking on the streets and she would put the camera on. And I feel so great. Mom, I want to see. I want you to come here. We have to make sure that you're transferring your work in the U. N. So there we were close together because this is where I found happiness. She really found herself.

And then suddenly, just after a day of booked her first role in a Macedonian animated film, she disappeared. Days Mom and I speak about a day is childhood in Macedonia, her education at the American University in Paris and her job at a jewelry store in Dubai, where she decided that regular 9 to 5 work was not the life she wanted. I asked Nora what her theories are on a day is disappearance, and she suggests that I speak to the last person known to have seen a Daya, her friend Emma. Every day it's passing by your losing hope, But I'm really hoping she's still alive. I'm really it's It's too bad toe, you know, sold 25. Her life is in front of her. It's It's only the beginning.

Emma is tall and thin, with a strong jaw, chiseled face and long jet black hair. She's wearing bracelets, which you may hear jingling during the interview, along with music leaking through the paper thin walls of this Hollywood apartment complex. This is a building designed specifically for Hollywood hopefuls. In the lobby, there's a picture of the Hollywood sign, and nearby there large neon letters that read You've arrived, a message to all those who drive and fly into the City of dreams from small towns around the world. Emery calls the exact moment she knew something was wrong. How I found out that they're missing Waas thes guy who is a common friend off man there. So I call her. The phone was off. I let it go.

But listen, call me then some other day, which was the 24th February in the he said, No, I am I. She's not answering. So I just started running from my place to her for the building. It's like Emma drove two a days apartment, contacted the building manager and explain the situation. But the manager wouldn't let Emma up two a days apartment, no matter how much she pleaded. Eventually a day, his friends had to contact the police to do a welfare check, and not only was a day and not there, but the door was left unlocked, which they found very suspicious and very unlike a data.

And then we contact the mom, the mom said, goes to the police and reported that she's missing. The day is Friend Angel continues the story. Angel runs a company called the Hookah Guys, and what they do is they set up mobile hookah lounges and clubs and India, along with Emma, where working is basically volunteer hostesses at his hooker nights. So we go in on Monday, we spoke to the detectives. They seem to like, you know, take whatever information that they had or whatever. It didn't seem like they were about to do anything. Eso we went out. As a matter of fact,

they called us and they called the legend. The person of Father apartment said that you shouldn't go down to the police station because you guys were just You're here there for nothing. You know, don't don't come down. So police station, our officers have other things to do. It's hard to believe that you could have a friend go missing under suspicious circumstances, with their door literally left unlocked, and the police would tell you that they have better things to do than go search for your friend. I was shocked to hear this from Angel and asked him how this could be possible. They're not looking, and I think I have that conversation with one of the detectives When he said, You know, we want to find her you know, do you not trust that we want to find her? And I said,

No, I don't trust that you want to find dry trust that you want to build a case that's more important than you Then, whether she's alive or possibly dead, all these interviews have taken place in a daze apartment. As we leave, I tell Jayden that it seems like her friends are holding back with me a little bit like they know something Maur than they're comfortable sharing right now. There are a lot of like that on the information that it's all like it's also like he tells me there's another person I should talk to. An ex boyfriend of a day is who probably has more information on her than anyone else. This is because for some reason, her cell phone bill is in his name, and in addition, his name is on the lease to her apartment. Although he never actually lived there and this guy has a lot of facts I've been looking for. He's an odd, fast talking and very intense European who's asked to remain anonymous for reasons that will soon become clear. So for the purposes of this podcast will call him Ivan.

I've recreated Ivan side of the conversation here. I have all the information from T Mobile and what's out? Last data on the phone was 12 50. I called in to the bill from T Mobile. Got it? Because you have You have her phone bill so you can see the data. Yes, The phone bill is in my name. I took a screenshot and I sent it to the police. I'm gonna Are you gonna text you on WhatsApp? If I text on WhatsApp, I'd love to see that. Yeah, Yeah, you can text me on WhatsApp and I'll send you the screen shot from T mobile data. And of the last text she sent.

I've been explains that not only does he have all of the day a cell phone data, but he's managed to have a hacker cracker iCloud and get her crucial last messages on text and on WhatsApp he shared with police the message that I'm about to share with you now, however, and this is worth noting he has not shared a day as full iCloud account and text message logs with Jaden, the private investigator. It seems a bit weird to me that her ex boyfriend is the gatekeeper of all her personal information. The text was sent to a friend from acting class named Christiaan, just 48 minutes before a day. His phone shut off for good and a day and made a very strange request. She wrote, Baby, do you know where I can buy candles? Red ones? And that was the last time A day Is Shibani communicated with anyone? It remains unclear just why she was asking for red candles minutes before she disappeared and whether that's an innocent question or a significant clue. Yes,

sir. We're in a day his apartment right now and we're leaving. And a thank you day, eh? For sharing your family, your friends with us. Hopefully we can find you r v a good or a service. Harry, you have a key. Working remotely can be a challenge, especially for teams that are new to it. How do you deal with your work environment being the same, his home while staying connected and productive. And then there's your newest coworker with cat. Well, your friends that trail oh have been powering remote teams globally for almost a decade at a time when teams must come together more than ever to solve big challenges.

Trail owes here to help Trail Oh Part of at last year's collaborative suite is an app with an easy to understand visual format, plus tons of features that make working with your team functional and just plain fun. Cello keeps everyone organized and on the same page, helping teens communicate, focus and connect teams of all shapes and sizes at companies like Google, Fender, Costco and likely your favorite neighborhood coffee shop. All used cello to collaborate and get work done. Try trail Oh for free and learn Maura trail oh dot com. That's t r E l l o dot com hello dot com At home that night, I review the only fax I've been able to gather so far. One a day is Shibani was last seen on February 23rd 2018 to last place. She was seen with her local coffee shop, Rise and grind. Three at 12 21 PM According to data retreat by Ivan from a day's Google account, Her YouTube search history shows her listen to music by Coldplay,

Beyonce. Mmm. And then at 12 40 PM, she does her last search. It listens to our final song, God's Plan, by Drake. For last time, her phone was in use. Transmitting data appears to have been immediately afterward at 12 50 that afternoon. I've gotten a couple of other times from people, but this is what the data from Ivan actually says. Five, according to another screenshot that Ivan sends me. Her computer shows that it was powered on and her chrome browser used from inside her apartment at 108 a. M.

That night. So that's over. 12 hours after her phone went out of commission, six front door of her apartment was found unlocked, which is unlike a daya that there were no signs of struggle inside the apartment. Seven and most bizarre of all, her last text was asking about where to get red candles. It's a lot of information, but it really doesn't point toward any specific direction or to any theory whatsoever. So far, the only suspicious person I've spoken to is her ex boyfriend Ivan. But it turns out he was in Europe at the time of her disappearance. It almost seems as if someone snatched a Daya right out of her apartment. But I asked Jadon about that, and there weren't any signs of a struggle. However, that night, as I'm going through all my interviews E, get this call.

Hey, just wanted to give you an update. Just got a call from Angel. He's got a call that came in on his cell phone, which was sort of acting as the de facto tip line until we get ours up and get the new media out. But basically you got a call from a guy Anonymous didn't leave a name, you know, a block number saying that he saw a day and she was being, like put into the bed of a pickup truck out in front of her apartment. She said that she was like, out of it, like the implication was like maybe drugged. And then the truck took off and drove south down to Hollywood Boulevard. He gives us a description of the truck and he even as the plate number

coming up on season one of to live and die in a way. All right, My car, man, I don't do this. I'm still a mystery. What happened to 25 year old? A DEA Shabani, an aspiring actress and model who went missing February 23rd. Now, a twit and bed had been stabbed several times and there was a huge knife left in my bed. He wasn't. He was panicking life every second word he was telling his shit. She I don't know. I don't know. I'm like, how do you know when it was the last time you saw her?

And what did she say? Hey, you know, it's deeper than ever. You never go. Well, I mean, just think about it if you have. If the bullet is exiting this wind first off, nobody shoots themselves four times. He said, I'm gonna tie. This is talking about you and again. Please keep this between us, okay? He said I'm gonna go back.

We're gonna tie him up. And where torture? I'm gonna find out where he put a day. Even if we have to kill him, you get a sense that you have a person is aboutthe and can do anything to claim all of us. I got one last important question. How worried do I have to be if we don't work things out and I do this physically

girls go missing from L. A. Every single fucking day

toe live and die in L. A has been a production of Tenderfoot TV and me Neil Strauss in conjunction with Cadence 13. The executive producers of this podcast are myself, Donald Albright and Pain Lindsay, along with producers Alex Vespa Stead and my crony. Because this is an open case. Anything you know, about a day Shibani or anyone mentioned this podcast we want to know, Please email us at live Die L A at tenderfoot dot tv or call us at 213 204 2073 Music and score you've heard in this podcast is buy makeup and vanity set. Our theme song is Love and War by Fleury and our show Art and Design or by Trevor Isler. You can follow us on social media at live Die l A pod or you can find her website with bonus content at lived I l a dot com one extend a special thanks to Brian Fish Back to Rich Burner Kevin Richter, Station 16 Orin Rosenbaum, UTA Eric Landed Shangrila and the North Group It helps a lot when you subscribe rate and review the podcasts that you enjoy and listen to thank you for listening and for your support.