A search for a missing person and my love of mozzarella sticks culminates with a surprise ending.
Art by Pete Whitehead
Listen Free: | Apple Podcasts | Pandora | Stitcher | Spotify |
*This episode is made possible by Fishbowl. Download the free professional networking app today!
Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
Production Assistant: Lennon Janovyak
TRANSCRIPT
S2E3-MissingPerson.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
This episode of 7 Minute Stories is made possible by Fishbowl. I didn't really know much about Fishbowl until Aaron started doing his live audio talks about storytelling and podcasting there. Since then, I've been pretty much obsessed. If you didn't know, Fishbowl is a social app where professionals go to connect. Since joining Fishbowl, I've met a bunch of cool people and have learned a ton from live talks with industry experts. I know Aaron loves it because he works 100% remotely as a podcaster. I'll be announcing new upcoming dates for Aaron's live Fishbowl talks in the future.
For now, download the Fishbowl app for free today. You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. We love hearing from you, so we set up a number you can call or text it's 216-352-4010. Use it and share some feedback about one of Aaron's Stories or a story of your own. We might feature your text message or voicemail in an upcoming episode. Also, visit our website 7MinuteStories.com. That's the number 7 Minute Stories dot com to see the awesome new merch available this season, choose from Stickers, Koozies, T-shirts, tote bags and more.
I have to say the tote bag is my favorite. This episode, Missing Person.
It was a month ago, and I'm sitting in the passenger side of a car looking out the window. And as I'm looking at this abandoned factory, I started feeling very uncomfortable. It could have been because we were alone in this rotted out parking lot in the middle of nowhere, by the way. It could have been the old farm equipment that was rusted out with weeds growing everywhere. It could have been for a number of reasons. But we had also been driving for more than an hour and searching, and I just reached a threshold where I started feeling a little scared and I just wanted to go home.
Now I looked over at Cori, my future wife, who was driving, and she was still laser focused because she was on a mission. We were looking for, I should say we, because I was just along for the ride, but she was looking for a car of a woman who recently went missing in our community. Now she's not a detective, but she got moved by the story because it is our community, and it was just a weird thing that this woman just went missing, and Cori was looking for the car
she was last seen driving, and it was the weekend. She's like, why don't we just go look for this car? I said, yeah, sure. Well, after about an hour or so and being in places like I'm describing, I started kind of losing connection. And to be honest with you, I wasn't really gung ho about it to begin with. Now let me just say for Cori or anybody else who gets moved by these things, I totally understand it. I think there's two things, right. There's people who get involved and want to know details about things that happen in people's lives or mysteries.
Just because they like to consume information. It's almost like a fetish, like they're voyeurs. They just like to know what happens. And in fact, it brings them a weird entertainment, especially in real life cases like this. And I've never been like that. But, Cori, I know her curiosity is earnest and noble because she really was affected by this because it was so close to home, and she just wanted to volunteer some time just to see, could we figure something out to help? We live in a world where so many things are out of our control.
So if you could just like, move the dial and help a little bit, that's an amazing thing. And that's why I think we've seen this really big surge of podcasts in the podcasting world of people solving mysteries and trying to solve crimes. And I can understand both sides from the law enforcement perspective, a lot of people are weary of this. They're like, you're not professionals. You could be making waves or doing more harm. And on the other side, I see the perspective of, look, if you aren't able to do it, and this is a mystery or something has happened to a loved one or a friend or someone I know, and I want to get this solved.
I can understand and respect that effort to do it. And there have been some really good results because of it. So that's the world we're living in and that's the world I was living in in this car. But here's the reality. I wasn't really moved to look for this person. And it's not that I don't have empathy. I have tremendous amounts of empathy. I cry every day at commercials. I'm crying. I love my family. I just think there are certain things that move people to be mobilized for different reasons.
For me, I'm moved a lot by economic issues that affect people, poverty, injustice, things of that nature move me to participate to be part of the civic movement of a particular idea. So that's kind of where I'm moved. And it's not that I'm not concerned about people in my community. I just looked at this particular instance, and was like, yeah, it's just really none of my business. And I'm just going to let the authorities do what they're supposed to do. And I'm going to go about my life.
And I think a lot of people operate that way, and that's okay, too. Well, that's how I thought I would be until something changed. And it all had to do with my love of mozzarella sticks. See, I'm a mozzarella stick connoisseur, have been my whole life. And if I ever want a decent mozzarella stick, not too high, not too low, but just a decent one, I go through Arby's. They have solid mozzarella sticks and a side of marinara — four to six piece option, by the way. So one day I'm coming off the highway in our city and right off the highway is an Arby's.
Cori's with me. This time I'm driving, and she's on her phone. And in fact, she's on a Facebook group that's trying to figure out what happened to this woman. And as we're pulling up to the Arby's and I'm about to make my order, she says, Did you know that the woman that went missing worked at this Arby's? And my eyes just kind of lit up, and I was like, really? And I looked at the picture again on the missing sign, and it just connected with me.
I realized I had been seeing this woman on all my mozzarella stick, you know, adventures, for the last couple years, and all of a sudden it clicked with me. I'm like, I know this woman. I mean, I don't really know her, but I've interacted with her. I remember her features and her smile, and I've... All this stuff, right? And for some reason, in that moment, I started to, like, care more, and it just kind of flooded through me. And then I started asking Cori all these questions.
And in that moment, as we went through the drive through and a woman handed me a bag, I felt more committed to doing something about this. Don't ask me why. I don't know if it's a character flaw, but I guess the moral is that each of us are moved and connected to each other through different things. And sometimes it's your curiosity. And in my weird case, it might just be the fact that I loved mozzarella sticks from Arby's. But it doesn't matter, because at the end of the day, something happened to someone and that someone belongs to someone else and is important to a lot of different people.
And I think it's important that all of us, in some way, do something about it. So to do my small part, I'm going to share the missing persons information on this podcast, because we have a wide listenership in hopes that maybe one of you out there knows something or could help with the search as well. So here you go. The missing person's name is Jane Milota. Jane went missing on August 9th after she dropped her son off to work, and at that moment, her and her car vanished.
They haven't been seen since. People have been searching for weeks. Holy shit. I'm not going to stop recording. This is unbelievable. As I'm recording this right now, talking to you, I just got a notification. I'm sorry. I'm reading here that Jane has been found. She's been found and she's safe. I don't know the circumstance. I think she's been found in a different state. They don't think there's any criminal activity, no foul play. It looks like it may have just been, like a mental breakdown or something, but she's been found and she's going to be reunited with her family.
You can't ask for endings like that. So disregard the missing person because Jane has been found. And you know what this calls for. This is a celebration. You know what I'm feeling? I feel like I want to go to Arby's and get some mozzarella sticks. Mozzarella sticks. Don't forget the marinara. We'll talk to you next week. Oh, my God. Amazing. We'll talk to you next week.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at Media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at PeteWhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran and Lennon Janovyak is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure and tune in next week for another story.
Like 7 Minute Stories?
Subscribe for FREE & Binge hundreds more on Apple Podcasts!
Thanks to our partners
