The Texas Missing Podcast
Two best friends who are previous law enforcement officers seek to highlight active missing person cases in Texas.
Contact kate@thetexasmissing.org for case recommendations.
The Texas Missing Podcast
05: David Arias
Have you ever found yourself tangled in a web of mysteries, inconsistencies, and haunting questions? This episode draws you into the chilling case of David Arias who vanished without a trace from Fort Worth, Texas, in June 2019.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of David please contact Ft. Worth Police Department at 817-392-4222. Case #190063273.
Resources:
Missing Person Report received from Ft. Worth PD
https://www.dps.texas.gov/mpch/MissingPerson/mpDetails/M12-22-20213-09-52PM
https://www.facebook.com/share/DQY5HiVmC7uYCKaE/?mibextid=PkCAf5
https://www.instagram.com/thetexasmissing/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550699270048
https://www.threads.net/@thetexasmissing
Hey y'all, it's Kate and Brie. Welcome to the fifth episode of the Texas Missing Podcast. If you are not following us on social media, number one, you should. But also we made an announcement this week that we are going to start dropping episodes once a week instead of bi-weekly, so we are really excited about that. Like we also talked about last week, we're trying to do a little bit something different with our episodes. So last week I kind of took the reins and I'm the one that investigated and Brie was more of the listener who asked questions. And so this week it will be the opposite Brie will be in charge of the case and I will be here to ask questions. So let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Alright, this is the case of David Arias. David went missing in June of 2019 from Fort Worth, texas. About five weeks before David went missing, he actually moved to Texas from San Diego, california. David's wife stated that the last time she saw him was June 25th 2019. She said that she had picked him up from work that day. They started driving, got into an argument and she dropped him off at a mobile gas station on the corner of Randall Mill Road and 820. She stated that David was on drugs and so she made him get out of the car and told him to Uber home, and then the last place that he was seen was at the Gramercy Center building on Manhattan Boulevard.
Speaker 2:So the wife and I don't know what her name is, because, although I did get a police report, all of the names were redacted. So I have no idea what his wife's name is, because I did get a report from Fort Worth Police Department, but all of the names in it were redacted, so I could never figure out what her name was. Anyway, she filed a report on July 5th 2019 in Richland Hills, but the police wouldn't say if it was a missing person report or some other type of report, so I'm just going to assume that it was a missing person report. They wouldn't confirm one way or the other. So that was about 10 or 11 days after he went missing. Mind you, this is his wife and they lived together and she, on the 25th of June, told him to find his own way home. So she didn't report him missing for 11 days, was there?
Speaker 1:any articles or records stating why she waited so long?
Speaker 2:No, In fact, there's no news articles or anything about David period. Yeah, it was difficult to find any information, so everything that I have is based on I mean, it's from the police report from Fort Worth. So she filed in Richland Hills July 5th. Well, his David's niece, who lives in San Diego, filed a missing person's report with Fort Worth PD and she did that on July 23rd 2019. And this is kind of where it starts to get a little bit weird, because stories start to change and it's just it gets a little wonky.
Speaker 2:So, according to Fort Worth's police report, david's niece who again, I didn't get the name because it was redacted she stated that you know, david was last seen on June 25th 2019 at the Gramercy Center building. Allegedly David had borrowed a cell phone from his friend, called his wife for a ride home and it's unknown what time he did this. David's niece said that their family in San Diego had been hearing odd stories about David and his wife's behavior since they had been living in Texas. The niece stated that David had contacted a realtor about purchasing property with his brother on June 14, 2019. So June 14 is when he contacted this realtor, but they were outbid for the properties, according to the realtor and the niece was able to talk to this realtor and she was told that David had told the realtor that he was going to buy this property with his brother, alex Arias. But David doesn't have a brother, ooh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this was information that was pulled from the realtor, so she was working directly with him.
Speaker 2:Right, and so there is no Alex Arias in that family. The niece also said that David doesn't have good credit and he really wouldn't have been in a position to purchase property. I guess he had a job but him and his wife were semi homeless, you know, not like completely destitute, but also didn't have like a reliable place to live. The realtor told the niece that the main contact that he had with David was through email only, and the niece also found this weird because David's spelling and grammar was terrible. And so the niece further went on to say after she contacted this realtor and heard all this weird information, the family David's family contacted David's wife about him being missing, but her stories started to change and they weren't making sense. The first story she told was that the same story that she had kind of given Richland Hills that she had gotten into an argument he had become abusive, he was on drugs, she kicked him out of the car and told him to Uber home.
Speaker 1:So were they living in Richland Hills at the time. I'm just trying to figure out why she made the report in Richland Hills.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they were living in Richland Hills at the time, but he went missing from Fort Worth. Okay, okay, so it made more sense to file in Fort Worth than it allegedly then to file in Richland Hills, unless he actually went missing in Richland Hills. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, that's what I want, because the wife was the last one to see him. Apparently, the wife changed her story to David's family from him being kicked out of her car because he was on drugs and being abusive to the fact that he disappeared from work, that she hadn't even seen it that night. So her story has changed.
Speaker 1:So she went from? Yeah, I did see him. I kicked him out of the car to he went to work and I didn't see him after that. Yeah, so it changes.
Speaker 2:I know and I'm going to let you know right now there's no supplements that I could find to this report, so I'm not really sure how much follow-up has been done on this report, or if it was just a report that was taken and they're like so long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2:So apparently David's niece had also been hearing rumors that David's wife's son, who's an adult at this point, didn't like David and had been trying to frame him for stealing drugs from a drug dealer, and this is based on what the niece is saying. I don't know how accurate any of that is. Does the niece live in California too? Yeah, the niece lives in San Diego. His whole family lives in San Diego, so he's the only one that is in Texas. Yeah, him and his wife came to Texas.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't know if her son lived in Texas, just because it doesn't say it and I can find. I don't even know what her name is, so let alone her son. But the niece was saying that the family was questioning David's wife's credibility anyway because they had found like three different IDs with different names and social security numbers on them, some kind of like chest or trunk that had been left at David's mom's house in San Diego. So they had stored property at David's mom's house and I guess they were going through it and they had found, you know, multiple IDs with multiple names for her with her picture on different social security numbers.
Speaker 1:I wonder if they even knew who, like her, legitimate name was. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really weird. It gets weirder. So in between the time that he went missing and the time that the niece filed the police report, the niece's other uncle one of her other uncles got a text message saying that these people had David and that they would return him for $5,000. And they didn't recognize the number. They have no idea. Was it a Texas number? I don't know, because it didn't say I don't know. I don't know what the number was.
Speaker 1:That's really bad, but also only $5,000.
Speaker 2:I know, and like was it David? Was it David's wife, you know?
Speaker 1:Or like the son, like her son, if he was trying to like frame David, which is super convoluted to like, include a drug dealer in framing someone. It's odd. Oh yeah, it doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:Well, and then the wife David's wife allowed his phone to be disconnected, his cell phone service to be disconnected, so nobody could reach him on his cell phone anyway, because she disconnected the service and that's fairly quick after him disappearing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it's like Because this is all within a month Like, what do you know? Yeah, he knows something. Right, like she felt comfortable enough that, oh, you know he's talking, he won't be using this anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what I thought too. I was like this is very weird. For me the weirdest part is the text message, kind of mixed with the rumors of David's wife's son trying to frame him for stealing narcotics from a drug dealer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Did his family respond to the text messages? Did they like? Did they report that to police?
Speaker 2:No, and none of that was included. This report was, bare bones, basic and I don't think anybody tried to follow up with anybody else because there's no, there was no supplement attached.
Speaker 1:Do you think that not following up was more of that? They were semi-homeless. Was there? Was there drug usage Like-?
Speaker 2:So there was definitely drug usage and there are okay. So along with homelessness, there's typically a mental health component that comes along with that. I don't know if David had any kind of mental health issue going on or if it was just drugs or or both Right, I mean he was employed and they did have a place to live tentatively, I mean kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I mean, I'm going back to the realtor. Did she ever see him in person, or was all of the so? All the communication was through email, yeah through email or text so she. She doesn't even know if he was the one that she was responding with.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I don't know how David was even putting in bids on property. So I'm not like a real estate. You know Guru? Yeah, I don't really know how that works, but I would think to put a bid on a piece of property, you would have to show that you are able to afford it. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like you have to show something that says some kind of documentation saying, hey, I've got the money that I can put forward for this.
Speaker 1:What was the date difference in between, when he was doing all this with the realtor in the day that he went missing?
Speaker 2:He was doing this with the realtor on June 14th is when he put in bids and was outbid. He went missing on June 25th, so not very far 11 days.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, that's, I mean the realtor. Like she doesn't even know if that's who she was really even dealing with. It could have been his wife, it could have been someone else, but-.
Speaker 2:We don't know if that was the day he actually went missing either, because that comes from the wife. The wife that was the last time that she saw him. Yeah, but she also said he went missing from work and then she said she kicked him out of the car.
Speaker 1:So no, I mean, I find it weird that you know maybe more is being done than we know. Obviously that's a regular occurrence, especially with police departments current missing person cases, but that would have been major red flags for her to change up her story. So much Like the difference in between. Oh yeah, you know, we got into a fight and I kicked him out of my car to oh well, he went to work and he didn't come home.
Speaker 2:Right, well, and she said this to the family, not to police, but I think only Richland PD contacted her. I don't know if Fort Worth was ever able to get a hold of her or not. Yeah, that's just odd. Yeah, the whole thing is really weird, and I mean it's a lot suspicious, you know, Because anything could have happened. He could have left of his own free will, but then why wouldn't he contact his family? He's clearly very close with his family.
Speaker 1:I would think that he would definitely contact his family. But you know, like you brought up earlier, there was a component of drugs, potential mental health, mental illness. But you know there is drug-induced psychosis, so maybe it was brought on by drugs. You know there's endless possibilities, what happened? But I do think that there's a lot of room to investigate which could be happening. We just don't see it. But I think none of that makes sense. There's a lot of questions that are unanswered in a lot of theories that formulate because of the wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, he was very difficult to find information on generally. So I went through kind of all of our avenues of research and locating somebody and I couldn't find like boo on him Except for, you know, in San Diego he had two cases against him. I couldn't pull those cases, so I don't know what they're for. I do know they're criminal cases. I would assume probably drugs or something. But that's all I that's the only things I could find. I couldn't find him any past residences, anybody that he's related to I could not find. I checked, you know, all of our background check sites. I checked social media. I couldn't find anything.
Speaker 1:Any of his family that were trying to get a hold of him beforehand, like his niece and uncle, have they like? Have you seen anything with them trying to find him or locate him or even put out like bulletins about it?
Speaker 2:No, I have not found bulletins, I have not found flyers and I'm sure they're doing something in California. I don't, you know, I really don't know, because he went missing here. Yeah, he clearly made it here. He had a job here, like he was. He was here in Fort Worth for five weeks or in the DFW area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, cause I would you know it should be a focused search here. Yeah, there's not really a lot you can do in California.
Speaker 2:Hmm, I know, if I was the police officer taking the report, I would have wanted to see the text message that said that they had. I would want that number. I mean there's a lot that I would have put into the report that just isn't here. You know what I mean. Like there's a lot of information that you could have asked while you had that person on the phone.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and that's where I'm coming from with there's so much potential for this case, to at least investigate her the wife, of course but then also investigate that avenue, like speaking to the religion again, looking through those emails, you know they were saying that he didn't have very good grammar. Okay, well, like, let's analyze the emails. Who was really sending these emails? Right, the number that was sent to the family? Like, okay, let's analyze, maybe, who sent this. Now, granted, you know numbers generated from WhatsApp. In sites like that they can't be tracked, they're essentially throw away cell phone numbers, but there's always a chance to at least look and investigate. Okay, Well, where did that come from? Cause, I mean, he's apparently missing. You get a text message that people have them and you can get them back for $5,000. It sounds like extortion, right? Or?
Speaker 2:he is. I mean it could be him, yeah, when needing $5,000 and not wanting to ask his family, but it doesn't seem. That doesn't really seem logical or plausible or even probable, because he does sound like he was really close with his family. Yeah, so I would think. You know, I don't think that he would go four years at this point without contacting them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's I just. I just want to like know more about the why I know I know and. I feel like she holds most of this information.
Speaker 2:She absolutely does, especially because she was probably the last person to see him. That the, the first story that she told, is probably the most closest to the truth. Whether it's the truth or not, I don't know, but she probably was the last person to see him. They probably did get into an argument. He probably was on drugs. Did she kick him out of the car, you know, in the middle of Fort Worth, or did something else happen? Who knows?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but if it was just one of those things where you were in a fight and you dropped him off, you know that's? I mean that happens, but not putting any effort into finding him, that we know of Not even filing a missing person report until July.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, and I get, it was the beginning of July and it was the end of June, but that's a 10 or 11 day. I don't like.
Speaker 1:I'd be. I think it's a 31 month day thing. Yeah, but I mean I would, I would be there immediately, I would be doing everything I can. I'd be doing posters and all that. So the fact that she's not it always lends itself to okay, she sure already knows what happened. So she's not going to waste any time, you know, even pretending like, oh, I'm going to help try and find them, Like you already know what happened.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now her cell phone was disconnected in that first month period and I don't know it doesn't lend itself to good news. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and she's kind of pushing, pushing herself away from the case, I would say, especially with cutting off the cell phone. You know she and you know I don't even know about this case. We're like where did you find this ad?
Speaker 2:But this was on Texas DPS missing persons. Yeah, he was listed on Texas DPS missing persons, so he's still considered missing. And did they have?
Speaker 1:so I know that they put. Sometimes they do run away, sometimes they just do missing or they do missing in danger. Do you remember what they labeled him as?
Speaker 2:So he was listed as other. I know the typical missing persons are either, like you said, run away, danger, foul play, so he was listed as other.
Speaker 1:Do you think it's just because the lack of information right now, or maybe the information that we have that you've found is more of just theory in here, say, and it hasn't been actually given to police?
Speaker 2:or it hasn't been. Well, it's been given to police but it's all rumored. So you know it's coming from his niece in California most of this information, or his family in California yeah, family, yeah. So you know it might have been stuff that had been told to them from David himself and you know, maybe he was saying that kind of stuff in a psychotic episode or something or a drug induced state.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know that my wife's son, so my stepson, is trying to have me framed for stealing drugs from a drug dealer, like it sounds implausible.
Speaker 1:It's a little over the top. I can think of other ways to to frame someone and not, so I'm not for sure about that.
Speaker 2:But I honestly I can't imagine him going this long without contacting his family. But also it's very weird that you know, I did social media searches and I couldn't really find very much about him at all. I could not find family posting about him at all. Fort Worth has posted, I think, one post showing he's a missing person, like 2019. Yeah, it was August 2019.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because what did you say? That there hasn't been anything, anything, any type of post since 2019? And there's no updates, anything like that.
Speaker 2:I did see a comment from 2020 from some lady on Facebook who I tried to reach out to also that said that they were working. I guess a really big lead in this case that you know could break the case, but I don't know who that lady is and I don't know what she. She lives in Waxahatchee, so you don't really like him.
Speaker 1:Family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ok, because I don't think he had family here. I don't know why they came to Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and he said that there was an overwhelming amount of comments that were suspicious of the wife. Yeah, because I think the the main story that I saw from some of the posts is the original story that the wife gave, that they got into a fight and he got out of the car and that was the end of it, and so I'm not for sure if they're theorizing just based off that initial response from her or if they've also heard the other response that she gave, for the different story of. You know, he went to work and she never saw him again and then subsequently turned off his phone.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and all of that was that came directly from the police report. Ok, for Worth's police report. So that's all that. All came from the police report itself.
Speaker 1:Well, and like we said earlier, we don't know if there's a break in the case, because we're not privy to that, because it's it's open, so very well could be something going on that we just don't know about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I really I couldn't figure out what the wife's name is, so you know, I have no idea if she's been arrested or not. I have no idea. Yeah, and it was never big in the news Like this missing person who it's a suspicious missing person for me. Like, let's be honest, this is weird and it did not make the news. I could not find any news reports on it.
Speaker 1:Well, do you think that it's because of the potential that there were drugs involved that he was, you know, of a lower class, and you know that people of lower class that do go missing they don't get as as much media coverage?
Speaker 2:I don't know, our first episode we carry we we covered Jared and his case got a bit of media attention and his was also, you know, possibly drug related circumstances. So like I don't think necessarily that it that it is because he, you know possibly that it possibly could have been drug related or mental health induced or whatever, I just I don't Because somebody didn't make a big enough stink about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I personally think the circumstances led itself to being a case that should be examined much further or at least put on a little bit more media coverage so people kind of have a better idea about it because I didn't know about it. And I feel like some of these circumstances are like oh okay, like there's some leads on this, yeah, that should be explored?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, and if the wife wanted to take this guy out, I don't know what her stature looks like, what she looks like, but David is 5'4 and he weighed between 140 and 160 pounds. So he's a little fellow, right Like he's a small guy. So just to go into further detail about David's descriptors like I said before, he's 5'4, between 140 and 160 pounds. He's a Hispanic male with brown hair, brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a red checker shirt, blue pants and work boots allegedly. He has a tri-bold dragon tattoo on his right shoulder, a two-inch scorpion on the back of his neck, and he's got the name Ashley tattooed on his chest. David also goes by the nickname Kacho and I have no idea what that means or what his name is.
Speaker 1:It's spelled C-A-C-H-O. As always, his photo and all of his information will be posted on our social medias at the Texas Missing, so make sure you like and follow, and then also make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast. And I think that's it. So I'm Kate and I'm Bree and this is the Texas Missing Podcast.