What Happened to Misty Copsey: Part One - The Fair

Welcome to "What Happened to Misty Copsey?" - a riveting three-part series that dives headfirst into the mysterious vanishing of Misty Copsey. In our story, Misty's life takes center stage. She is not your average teenager; she is outgoing, athletic, and charming. She also has a friendship with Trina that is straight out of a 1980s movie, complete with cute nicknames and a bond made of steel. But fast-forward to 1992, and something happens that changes everything. A visit to the Washington State Fair becomes the backdrop for an unexplained disappearance that will keep you on the edge of your seat. So, join us as we peel back the layers of Misty's story, and let's attempt to figure out together: What really happened to Misty Copsey?

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Transcript

What Happened to Misty Copsey? a story in 3 parts, this is part one: The Fair

[Underscore Music]

I love going to the state fair, there is great food, nauseating rides and fun to be had by all. But it is only fun if everyone makes it home safe.

[Theme Music Start]

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

[Theme Music Play Out]

[Under Score Music]

Being the child of divorced parents is extremely common these days in fact one in two children, of all children living in the United States of America will see their parents get a divorce.  These numbers have increased over the years and in our story today, set against the backdrop of the late 1970s, divorce was not quite as common as it is today.

The year was 1978 when Diana Smith and her husband Buck Copsey welcomed their daughter, Misty into the world.  Not long after Misty was born Diana and Buck struggled through a tumultuous divorce.  Diana took over primary care and guardianship of her daughter.  While navigating the strange world of newly divorced parents, Misty was still seen by her classmates as a happy go lucky girl and she was a popular young figure in her community.

Misty excelled at sports in school she played softball, basketball, and volleyball, but she was also strong academically as well maintaining a B average in school, even with all her extracurricular activities.  But in reality, Misty did not need to be good at sports or academics, she had that certain je ne sais quoi that people gravitate towards, she was charismatic without seeming pretentious and she had a playful, bordering on goofy sense of humor, these were the qualities that attracted those around her.  Misty’s best friend was Trina Bevard, Trina was Misty’s kindred spirit and confidante in life.  Misty and Trina’s friendship was so close that they girls decided to give each other pet names, this was very common in the 70s and 80s, sometimes you did not even know your friend’s real names, everyone had a nickname, it was like childhood street cred.  Misty called Trina Bean and Trina called Misty Bunyan, I could speculate as to the origins of these nicknames, but as it remains a secret to this day, we can simply dance round a ring and suppose.

Misty grew up in a trailer park in the town of Puyallup called Green Meadows, although I doubt there were any actual green meadows around.  Puyallup, Washington is seated 10 miles southeast of Tacoma and 35 miles south of Seattle.  The city’s name came from the Puyallup Tribe of Native Americans and the name translates to “generous and welcoming behavior to all people (friends and strangers) who enter our lands.” How simply beautiful is that.  While growing up in Green Meadows Misty made many fast friends that she would hold dear her entire life, but in 1992, when Misty was just 14-year-old, Diana made the decision to move to a duplex in Spanaway, Diana realized that this move would provide her daughter with a more stable home life. This new home was just a short drive from their old town, but to Misty it may as well have been Mars, everything was unfamiliar, she was surrounded by people she did not know, and she felt alone.

Diana had obtained a job as a caregiver to a 97-year-old Alzheimer patient who could not be left alone, this kept Diana away from home during the evenings, and it also meant that 14-year-old Misty Copsey was forced to navigate her evenings by herself, as a young teenage girl.  Even after moving away from the trailer park in Puyallup, Misty’s friendships remained strong, and she saw her old friends quite often.

One friend from the old neighborhood that Misty still kept in contact with was a boy, an older boy actually and his name was Rheuban Schmidt.  Rheuban was 18-years-old, a legal adult and he still chose to hang out with 14-year-old girls.  Rheuban was a scrawny high school dropout and he seemed to be almost fixated on Misty, he was definitely interested in being more than friends with the underage girl.  Diana did not yet know that Rheuban had these inappropriate feelings towards her daughter, but she would learn soon enough.

One day while Diana and Misty were both home, Diana inadvertently overheard a telephone conversation between Misty and Rheuban, in this conversation Diana overheard Rheuban telling Misty how horney he became whenever she was around, this prompted Diana to enter Misty’s room and demand that she end the call immediately. 

Misty assured her mother that there was nothing to worry about, she did not reciprocate Rheuban’s thoughts at all, gross, Rheuban, gross, Misty was into the typical pretty boys of the time, think your cast of Beverly Hills 90210, those were the boys Misty fantasized about.

Arguments between parents and their teenage children are not just a TV trope, it just happens, I think of it like a puppy who grows up with their parents to the point that they also start to test boundaries, it is a natural thing and not just for humans.  Diana and Misty’s relationship was also like this, ebbs and flows, ups and downs, the dynamics of a human relationship. One thing I have not mentioned so far is that Diana struggled with alcohol, as many people do. Her struggles were not debilitating, and they did not prevent her from caring for her own child, but there were some issues.  During the summer of 1992, Diana had a day when she could not locate Misty, she felt that she had looked for her everywhere to no avail.  Diana called the police and filed a missing person’s report only to locate Misty in her very own bedroom later that day.  And no, Diana did not overlook her daughter’s bedroom while searching for her, Misty had been out of the house while Diana was looking for her and then after she returned home, Misty had simply gone to her room and shut the door.

This was a simple case of confusion and miscommunication, exacerbated by the fact that cell phones were very rare in the early 90s. Diana felt a bit embarrassed about filing the missing person’s report and so she neglected to call the police to explain the misunderstanding, deciding instead to say nothing which resulted in the report remaining on file. After this incident, the remainder of the summer passed without any other dramatics.  Diana purchased Misty new cloths and a brand-new stereo system at the end of the summer, as the new school year approached. The mother-daughter relationship had leveled off and the drama had plateaued, Misty grew into her new living situation, and she began to grow fond of their new situation.

Misty was set to begin a new year at the Spanaway Lake junior high school, but before everyone in the small town got ready to go back to school, and just as summer grew to a close, the Puyallup Fair ushered in an end of the summer excitement all through the town. Misty and Trina began making their plans to attend the fair together, they could hardly contain their excitement.

[Music Change – Story Change]

Like any town, Puyallup had its share of, strange or eccentric residents.  One of these residents was a man named Cory Bober and Cory was fascinated with serial killers, in fact throughout Corey’s life he has researched over 200 serial killers. Cory kept meticulously organized folders and he even acquired information from medical examiners and police agencies that professional journalists had not been able to obtain. One serial killer Cory was fascinated with was the Green River Killer, which we covered in Season One of the Secret Sits. For nearly a decade, Cory Bober had devoted himself to convincing detectives from Pierce County and King County that his ideal suspect, Randy Achziger, was the notorious Green River Killer. Cory’s conviction about this suspect stemmed from a conversation he had with Randy Achziger, a former acquaintance, during which Randy disclosed a crucial detail related to the Green River killings, a detail about rocks. Randy told Cory that he had overheard this information from a drunk Auburn police captain, however; this answer was insufficient to Cory and he began to zero in on Randy.

As Cory embarked on his personal crusade against Randy Achziger, with no police training or cooperation, he began utilizing the media as a tool in his investigation. Some people in town viewed this as a manipulative weapon aimed at pitting the media against the investigators, creating an illusion of a cover-up or a refusal to follow leads. And, for a time, Cory’s efforts seemed fruitful. Both Pierce County and King County added Randy Achziger to their list of Green River Killer suspects, elevating him to a person of interest subjected to intensive scrutiny. However, unlike Cory, both counties eventually removed Randy Achziger from their list of suspects and redirected their investigations toward other more substantial leads.

This outcome was far from satisfactory for Cory. He was determined to see get Randy arrested, and he relentlessly hounded both counties as well as local jurisdictions, demanding action against his chosen suspect. Cory’s frustration reached such a point that he even made threats, vowing to "take care" of Randy himself if the authorities failed to apprehend him. Cory’s unwavering conviction in Randy’s guilt had driven him to the point of advocating vigilante justice.

Unsurprisingly, the police grew weary of Cory’s incessant demands and threats. Puyallup Police Sergeant Herm Carver was among those who began tuning out Cory’s persistent and disruptive behavior. As the police actively ignored Cory, Cory did take things into his own hands. Cory began using blatantly illegal means to try and entrap Randy, Cory had ex-girlfriends call Randy while recording their phone calls, Cory would sneak onto Randy’s property searching for physical clues in the case, and that is just trespassing, Cory also began interviewing Randy’s friends, family, and exes and began making video tapes, writing affidavits, and depositions, which he had signed and notarized, then he sent them to the police and local courts.

In 1992, Cory Bober noticed a pattern of murders emerging in the small town of Puyallup. While organizing all his case files into chronological order and checking when and where victims were last seen and where they were discovered, Cory made a discovery. Two deaths took place in Puyallup, Kim Delange was 15 years old when she was killed in 1988 and Anna Chebetnoy had been only 14 when she was murdered in 1990.  The remains of both girls were located along Highway 410 and although the girls were murdered two years and one month apart, their bodies were located almost next to one another.  As Corey starred at this information like Matt Damon solving a math problem, a pattern began to take shape.  These two girls had been murdered 2 years and one month apart, now it was September 1992, exactly 2 years and one month since the last murder and Cory knew that another girl would die before the end of the month.

And this was information, Cory Bober would not keep to himself.

[Music Change]

Misty Copsey and her best friend in the world Trina Bevard spoke with Misty’s mom Diana several times leading up to the fair, they just needed a ride.  Diana had thrown up road blocks several times during the lead up to the Washington State Fair, she knew she had to work and could not take the girls to the fair and bring them home, so the girls negotiated with Diana and came up with a plan.  Misty researched the bus routes and repeatedly pleaded with her mother to allow them to go.  After Misty’s relentless pleading, Diane finally caved and she told both girls, “You better not screw this up.”  

As September 17th arrived, Misty awoke, and she could feel the excitement in the air.  The small town of Puyallup only had a population of around 26,000 residents, but due to the fair being held, the population had swelled to four times that number.  The plan was for Diana to drive Misty and Trina out to the fairgrounds and drop them off, after the fair the girls would catch the 8:40 bus back home.  Diana was playing the cool parent and she participated in what seemed like a small white lie to Trina’s parents, you see, Trina’s parents were told that Diana would be dropping the girls off and picking them back up, Diana figured the two teenage girls would catch the bus home and everything would be fine. But this was far from what happened.

Misty picked out an outfit to wear to the fair, she chose a pair of her mother’s jeans, the jeans were a bit oversized for the young girl and she had to roll up the pant legs to make them fit, this was also the time of tight rolled jeans, don’t ask it was a fashion choice. As the girls arrived at the fair it was everything, they wanted it to be and more, Huey Lewis and the News were performing and if that name does not ring a bell, you definitely know their music, they were iconic and on almost every movie soundtrack coming out of the 80s.  The Power of Love from Back to the Future, should enough said.  The two best friends spent all afternoon and the early evening taking in all of the sights and sounds of the fair.  They walked around the crazy rides and smelled the funnel cakes wafting through the air, it was a perfect day, so perfect that the girls would end up missing that bus scheduled for 8:40pm.

The 8:40 bus was the last scheduled bus back to Spanaway from Puyallup and now that the girls had missed the bus, and they were stranded.  Misty called her mom from a pay phone at 8:45 and told her mom that she had missed the bus, Diana was upset, like any parent would be, and she was not able to leave her job to pick up Misty from the fair.  Diana told Misty to use her new electronic organizer to find a different ride home. Misty told her mom that she would just ask her friend Rheuban Schmidt to pick her up and take her home, this did not sit well with Diana who disliked Rheuban and did not trust the 18-year-old with her 14-year-old daughter. Diana told Misty not to call Rheuban, but to find a different person to driver her home, Diana also told Misty to call her back once she had found a ride. This was a call Diana would never receive.

Trina lived relatively close to the fairgrounds, close enough that she could walk home with no problem, but she lived in the opposite direction from Misty and Spanaway was way to far for Misty to walk home. So, Trina set out on her way home leaving her best friend to find and wait for a ride back to her house. After some time had gone by and Diana never received a call back from her daughter, her worry spiked, however; Diana rationalized with herself that Misty most likely obtained a ride home and had simply neglected to call and tell her. After Diana’s time with her 97-year-old patient had ended for the night, she rushed home to check on Misty.  As Diana entered her house, it was eerily quiet, she called out for Misty, and there was no response, Diana went to Misty’s bedroom and opened the door, but Misty was not there. Diana started by calling everyone she could think of, she called Trina, she called Misty’s grandmother and a slew of other friends, and she even called Rheuban…no one had seen Misty. Next, Diane picked up her phone and with shaking fingers she dialed 911. The police dispatcher Diana spoke with told her point blank that her daughter was most likely a runaway and that if she had not returned in 30 days, she could file a missing persons report. 30 days, common guys, we know this is not true, make the police take your report that day, that hour, time is always of the essence.  

With no help from her local police department, Diana was not sure how to proceed.  Trina, nor her family had answered their phone in the middle of the night as Diana was frantically making calls, Diana’s mother had answered the phone, but she had not seen nor spoken with Misty.  Rheuban had answered Diana’s call, but he told Diana that Misty had called him for a ride home from the fair, however; he did not have money for gas so he told her that he could not go pick her up.

As the morning broke and the sun rose, Diana’s feeling of panic also began to rise. With no help from the police, Diana went into mom mode, and she started searching for her missing daughter on her own.  Diana drove to Trina’s house, but no one answered the door, so Diana wrote a note asking for Trina to call her as soon as possible.  After exhausting all her own ideas for what to do, Diana decided to drive to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office at 1:30pm.  The Sherriff’s Office did take a report about Misty, and they told Diana that what the dispatcher told her about the 30-day waiting period was bullshit, you see I told you. Now that the police were involved, they realized that they were facing an interesting jurisdictional challenge.  You see, Misty had gone missing from Puyallup, and she lived in Pierce County, so the Pierce County Sheriff's Office needed permission from the Puyallup Police Department to assist on the case and we all know how well different law enforcement agencies work together. Diana continued her exhaustive efforts to locate her daughter and she continued calling everyone she could think of. That afternoon when Trina returned home from school, she found Diana’s note on the home’s front door and she immediately called Diana.  Trina told Diana what had happened the previous night, she explained that she and Misty had separated and as Misty walked toward the bus stop, Trina walked in the opposite direction toward her home.  Trina had not heard from Misty since then.

Diana called Rheuban again, but this time he was not at home, in his absence, Reuban’s teenage roommate named James Tinsley picked up the phone. And James had a completely different story to tell Diana about the previous evening. James told Diana that Rheuban had indeed gone to pick Misty up from the fair and he had done so with his uncle. This peaked Diana’s worry and renewed her interest in Rheuban as a suspect in her daughter's disappearance. After waiting some time, Diana picked up her phone and dialed up Rheuban once again, this time the 18-year-old answered the call. Diana was blunt and she demanded to know where Misty was. Rheuban said that his roommate James had been mistaken, he had not gone to pick up Misty, no, he and his uncle had gone to a party together, not to pick up Misty, although she had called as he previously said.

Diana did not believe Rheuban’s story, why had it changed, how did he have the gas to travel to a party, but not to go pick up Misty, a girl he was almost obsessed over. Several days began to tick by since Misty was last seen and Diana prayed daily for her daughter’s safe return.  The Puyallup police showed no interest in searching for what they thought was a simple runaway, Diana knew that this was not true. Diana’s life changed in the blink of an eye, she had been a hard-working woman, a single mother taking care of her child and now she was a single mother desperately searching for that same daughter. Diana went to Kinkos and made missing person flyers and then she papered the town, specifically the downtown area where Misty had vanished. Diana began calling all of Misty’s friends, she told them all that she was not upset with Misty and if they saw her or knew where she was to tell her that, tell her that no matter what happened or what was wrong, Misty could come home, no questions asked, no matter what.

The next brilliant action taken by Diana was to track down the bus driver who had been driving the route between Spanaway and Puyallup on the night of the fair. This man told Diana that, yes, he had seen, and he had spoken to Misty on that evening. The bus driver said that Misty had asked about another bus to Spanaway, but this was already the bus’s last run. He informed Misty that she could take a later bus directly to Tacoma and then transfer to another bus to Spanaway from there.  Misty accepted this information and just walked away; the bus driver never saw the girl again. 

Many of Misty’s friends and family members phoned Diana over the next several days, inquiring about the progress of the search. Among these friendly phone calls came calls from Rheuban Schmidt who also asked how the search was progressing, this only served to increase Diana’s suspicion of Rheuban.

After a week of pounding the pavement and searching for her missing daughter on her own, the Puyallup police department finally decided to file a missing persons report for the missing 14-year-old. The missing person’s report was filed on September 23rd, 6 days after Misty had gone missing without a trace. 

Now that the police were kind of on the case, they started by digging up information on Diana. In this investigation they learned that Diana had a couple of old DUIs and a prior conviction for welfare fraud. These things had been settled and were in Diana’s past, but Sergeant Herm Carver used these past infractions to view Diana as an untrustworthy person with a questionable and checkered past. Then Sergeant Carver discovered the missing person’s report from the first time Diana had panicked when she could not locate her daughter, and this would put a real damper on the police’s efforts to locate Misty Copsey. The first time Diana had filed a missing person’s report for her daughter, but then found her in her bedroom safe and sound, Diana was a bit embarrassed and because of that embarrassment, she never called the police back to remove the missing person’s report. The police never acted on that report, they never looked for Misty, they never called Diana to follow up, they did absolutely nothing, even though the missing person report was open and active.  But now they are holding that old report over Diana’s head, as if she had done something wrong besides not closing the report.

On September 29th, 6 days after taking the new missing person’s report, Srgt. Carver met with Diana at Misty’s Junior High School and he interviewed several of the 8th graders and a couple of these students claimed that Misty had called them since her disappearance, they also claimed that Misty told them she was doing fine and that she was in Olympia, Washington safe and sound. It would later be discovered that these students were not really even friends with Misty and they had fabricated stories for attention. Srgnt. Carver, based on this bogus information, decided that Misty was in fact a runaway and he removed Misty from the missing person’s database and changed the police report to indicate that she was a runaway. Diana was furious at this action and she stated that her daughter was happy at home and would have never runaway.

The next day Carver spoke to a Seattle radio station and doubled down on how shitty he was as a detective, telling the radio station that Misty Copsey was actually a runaway. He went on to claim that Diana knew where Misty was and that she was perfectly fine. Because of this interview search efforts for the missing 14-year-old came to a screeching halt, flyers around the town were quickly taken down and the public swiftly began allowing Misty’s smiling face to fade from their minds. One bad cop was affective in allowing a missing little girl to fade into history, but there was one person whose obsession would turn this whole case into a spectacle. 

Join us next week as we continue to ask the question, What Happened to Misty Copsey? Until then, we dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

Sources: 

Misty Donna Copsey – The Charley Project. (n.d.). https://charleyproject.org/case/misty-donna-copsey

Vanished: 27 years since Misty Copsey, 14, last seen in Puyallup. (2019, November 23). KIRO 7 News Seattle. https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/vanished-27-years-since-misty-copsey-14-last-seen-in-puyallup/987369410/

F. (2021, January 5). Misty Donna Copsey. The Resource Center for Cold Case Missing Children’s Cases. https://rcccmcc.com/2020/04/15/misty-donna-copsey/

A roster of possible suspects in the Misty Copsey case. (2012, December 28). Tacoma News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25859446.html

The Stolen Child: Part I. (2015, June 30). Tacoma News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25857745.html

The Stolen Child: Part II. (2015, June 30). Tacoma News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25857751.html

The Stolen Child: Part III. (2015, June 30). Tacoma News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25857754.html

Loose ends / FAQ. (2012, December 28). Tacoma News Tribune. https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/special-reports/article25857760.html

Harthorne, M. (2013, December 27). Police seek photos from 1992 Puyallup Fair to crack cold case. KOMO. https://komonews.com/news/local/police-seek-photos-from-1992-puyallup-fair-to-crack-cold-case

DNA could solve Misty Copsey’s 1992 disappearance, death. (2013, March 6). KOMO. https://komonews.com/archive/dna-could-solve-misty-copseys-1992-disappearance-death

AOL is part of the Yahoo family of brands. (2013, December 29). https://www.aol.com/article/2013/12/29/police-reopen-cold-case-after-21-years/20796975/

Puyallup, Washington. (2023, August 31). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyallup,_Washington

The Green River Killer. (2021, November 10). Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-green-river-killer/id1565343439?i=1000541453209

Kidnapped Mary Vincent. (2021, April 29). Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xd1st15lswMawoC1BoVEK