Lindsay Wells (King of Diamonds, California)

But park predators reminds us that even in the most beautiful places, dark secrets might be lurking.

“This podcast explores true stories of crimes that took place in the outdoors.”

Places meant to bring people together with nature, but where things went tragically wrong. If you're drawn to the storytelling here on the deck, you'll want to check out park predators, listen to park predators, anywhere you get your podcasts. Our card this week is Lindsey Wells, the King of Diamonds from California. Since 1999, Seemi Valley detectives have had an interesting case on their hands.

Over the years, the case developments have included work with a psychic medium and undercover wire operation and searches with cadaver dogs.

But this isn't a homicide case. It's the missing person's case of 22-year-old Lindsey Wells. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck. I'm Ashley Flowers, the King of Diamonds from California. On March 31, 1999, the Seemi Valley Police Department received a missing person's report from a man named John Tate.

He said that his fiancé, Lindsey Wells, was MIA. She lived with him and his mom and had been gone for a couple of days by that point. Now, John said he'd already checked around with her friends and family and they hadn't seen her either. But it's not like she could've just walked off. Lindsey didn't have a car, and the idea that she left on foot made little sense either.

Because... Lindsey was 911's pregnant with her child. That's detective Chris Lam with the Seemi Valley Police Department. He told us that one of the more concerning parts about Lindsey's absence was that she was just weeks away from her April 17th due date. And she missed a prenatal appointment on March 30th, just one day before John made this report.

Detective Lam wasn't on the case back in 1999. He's been playing catch-up trying to get his arms around an investigation that was kicked off 27 years ago by now retired detective John Parks. So it's his timeline and his supplemental reports that Detective Lam is using to try and pay a picture of Lindsey's last movements.

“I think any time someone's missing, you're trying to solidify a timeline, a factual timeline, something to start working with.”

And so his initial contact was going back to speak with John to try and figure out exactly when Lindsey had gone missing. According to John, the last time he saw his fiance was pretty early in the morning on Monday, March 29th as he was leaving for work. John didn't have a typical nine to five. He did different types of handymanor construction jobs from what we've been able to tell, so he was back home at noon that day. But he says that by then, Lindsey was just gone. And based on what his mother Donna told police back in 1999, Lindsey was gone even earlier than that.

John and Lindsey would usually hold their home quarterstone in their room. They would keep it in their room. And so she went that morning to retrieve it to put it back on the charger. It was a usual thing that she would do. So about 745, she went up to the room, retrieved the quarterstone, Lindsey was stolen the room sleeping, and then she returned back home. I believe it was shortly after 11 that morning, and at that point Lindsey had gone. So this was kind of narrowing the time period a little bit from the 745 to about 11 o'clock, I believe.

It doesn't seem like John or Donna was overly concerned that first afternoon because Lindsey's wallet and keys to the house were also gone.

Though they noted that her ID was left behind along with her engagement ring, but John speculated that she took it off because of her swollen fingers. Though Donna and John said nothing else was out of place, detective parks went by their house to see for himself. I think he was looking for anything that would suggest that this was anything more than a missing person.

“So I think that was important step is to go to the house where she was last seen and to see if there was anything there that kind of would raise suspicion that this was something apart from a missing person's case.”

That could be physical signs, furniture moved, damage, blood, or signs of a cleanup.

When you're able to search a residence in their compliant, that's kind of the way to judge to see if there's anything not just physically out of place, but also emotionally with family members to see how cooperative they are with the investigation itself.

“Detective Parks didn't make note of any odd behavior, and there definitely wasn't anything a miss physically in the house.”

But as Detective Parks asked around, he did learn about a fight between John and Lindsay days before she went missing.

Some of the concerns there were, John was working too much, and Lindsay was very pregnant, and so she kind of felt neglected. By that Sunday the next day, Donna had said that everything seemed to be back to normal. This argument, Donna tells police about a period to be minor, but it's also worth noting that it wasn't an isolated incident. One of Lindsay's close friends, Melanie Flowers, no relation to me in case we're wondering, was in touch with detectives too. And she did an interview on the Dead Life Podcast with Allison Dubois back in 2025.

She said she remembered that there was friction between Lindsay and John's mom Donna. Apparently the two would fight, and then that would make John and Lindsay fight.

“It doesn't seem like Detective Parks spent much time on John.”

His notes indicate that he was cooperative. He was after all the one who reported Lindsay missing, and he had his mom to back him up. What's unclear to me, and even to Detective Lam, is why John wasn't more concerned sooner about his pregnant fiancee's absence, because Melanie sure was. She was actually the one who was supposed to pick Lindsay up for her doctor's appointment on the 30th.

That day, Melanie called Lindsay over and over, first on her cell, then on the home phone, but no one picked up.

So finally, she just drove over. When Melanie pulled up, she saw a bunch of concrete and plaster equipment in the front yard, stuff that John used for work. And she noticed that the door to the garage, which was used as kind of this makeshift den, was partially open. She could tell that John was inside, so she went to peek down and ask him where Lindsay was. And he was sitting on a couch, where the couch is in the garage, and then there's a pool table, and there was two legs dangling.

And I kind of bent down underneath, and I said, "Hey, where's Lindsay?" And he like freaked out, he had this weird look on his face, and he goes, "She's not here! He's all get out of here!" And I kind of just was like, "Oh, okay, and I left, because scared me sometimes." But the interesting thing to me was, there was a rug underneath the pool table. The rug was missing when I started thinking about things.

It's hard to know what exactly Melanie is saying here to Alice in Dubai when she was interviewed. She doesn't go into more detail. Our team reached out to her, but she told us she didn't want to do another interview. She expressed how hard that first one with Alice had been for her, that she didn't want to rehash an emotional subject. Which is all to say, it's not totally clear if she was trying to say that she thought the leg she saw were Lindsay's,

or if she could even tell since she'd got such a brief glimpse. She did say that after that she went back to her own house, and she didn't stop trying to get in touch with Lindsay.

But she never heard anything back, except for one text message that she says came to her cell phone from Lindsay's number, about a week after she'd been missing.

And it said, "Number four, no lettuce cherry coke."

“And that's what she would always order from Del Taco, her chicken soft tacos.”

She couldn't get lettuce because of her braces, which gave me hope because I believed, "Oh my gosh, she's okay." But they never looked into it, they never got back to me, nothing. None of this is in the report's detective lamb has, but Melanie seems to indicate that she told police about this at the time. So it's not clear if those records were lost, or if they were never complete to begin with. And if Lindsay had a cell phone, that's not even part of the record anymore.

So I doubt that they pulled records and tried to triangulate who sent that text in from where. According to police records, we do know that Lindsay had a personal voicemail, that was part of a phone number she maintained at her grandpa's house. The report says there were numerous messages there, but none that were, quote, pertinent to the case. So who called, who the messages were from, or if they were relevant in hindsight, we've lost that opportunity to know. It's hard not to look at what was done, or really what was it done, and not walk away with the opinion that police back in 99 seemed to write Lindsay off.

We heard that Lindsay had a history with drugs, but stopped using when she got pregnant again. A friend told us that her pregnancy represented something different, a new chapter, a chance to get it right.

Maybe that they were more inclined to believe that she had left on her own for some reason related to drugs.

“And maybe that was also the reason they were so quick to take John and his mom at their word.”

And while John was never a suspect and has never been charged with anything related to Lindsay's disappearance,

some of those around Lindsay seemed to cast suspicion on him. According to police reports in Lindsay's case file, people raised their concerns about John. Some days he came off as nonchalant after Lindsay disappeared, buying a new motorcycle and later getting together with a new woman. And while we would love to get John's take on this, as of this recording, he hasn't responded to our interview requests. Beyond that cursory look at the house Lindsay shared with John in Donna, it doesn't appear any formal searches were ever done.

“It's possible that they didn't have a warrant to look at the house, but it also seems like they never even asked.”

Because Melanie says the one thing that was supposed to go to Lindsay's mom also named Donna never made it to her.

And I always told them that there was a, it was kind of like one of those pirate chests from the pirate ships back in the day, but it was at the foot of their bed, and it had a lot of her personal belongings and some new baby things that we had just gotten for the baby. I remember her telling me probably about two months before all this happened, if I ever go missing, make sure the skits to my mom. And I remember asking Donna, have you gotten any of Lindsay's thing and she had a diary that she would write in about John.

Hmm, never got anything. Nothing. This idea that Lindsay just walked away may have been bolstered by a couple of tips that came in early on, including one that came directly to police from a Cemi Valley Metro link transit station worker. These that a woman may be Lindsay came in with a man on March 29 and they bought tickets to Los Angeles to transfer to Oceanside California. They were apparently talking about going to Tijuana. Yeah, on the date she went missing and the eighth, thirty eight time frame is within the window she disappeared, right? So last being seen by Donna at seven forty five, and now we have potentially her being seen at the Metro link station at eight thirty eight.

Before she discovered being missing at eleven clock eleven thirty by the dates. So this is the potential it falls within a probable timeline of her being able to get to the train station and catch a train in that time frame. Starting that tip though was one that John passed along to police from a woman named Gloria McKinley. She was certain that she'd see Lindsay at a seven eleven near Lindsay's house on March thirty first the same day that she'd been reported missing. Gloria remembered it specifically because she noticed what the woman was wearing.

The woman in line at the store cut her attention because it's quite cold and the woman was just wearing a short sleep t-shirt which she thought was strange because of the being so cold outside. It was chilly in the like forty's or fifty's but Gloria figured that maybe because the woman was pregnant she was running a little warm and didn't need a sweater. But even if this was a hundred percent Lindsay, Gloria had no idea where the pregnant woman went or with whom. Without that, this was a lead that led nowhere.

Several lemons tend to have really get to around systems now so you know today's day and age we would be able to really follow up on that and see if they can capture any individuals that might match that description on camera maybe getting into a car or maybe walking a certain direction. Back in ninety nine not so easy. With these types of tips coming in maybe you'd be willing to forgive early investigators for thinking that Lindsay walked away.

“If that's what every tip is pointing to maybe there's some truth to that.”

But here's the thing. I'm not convinced these were the only kinds of tips. These were just the only ones making it to police.

Because in addition to media broadcasts and see me valleys missing person flyer, John Tate had helped put flyers up all over town. But instead of putting the number for police on them, he put his number. And I would love to ask John why he did this, but he never responded to or a quest for an interview. Maybe there's a good explanation. Maybe he wanted to do this because he felt like police weren't taking Lindsay's case seriously enough. Whatever the reason, this casts a shadow over the investigation that haunts Detective Lamb.

Is it a concern if this case takes a turn and becomes more nefarious than just a missing person? Absolutely. I think if John had any involvement in Lindsay's disappearance,

The idea that this was more than just a missing person's case was becoming a concern with the more time that passed.

Because after canvassing her street in Simee Valley, calling around to jails and hospitals and looking through Lindsay's voicemail and credit card, there was nothing. And when her due date came and went and there was no sign that she had used a medical card to pay for the birth of her baby. They had to start considering alternative theories. I think if everybody comes up with, okay, she left him all materially. I think that was the first concern like did she leave on her own, and then when she doesn't return or we have no leads and nobody's hurt from her.

“People start to the concern and start to increase, and then I think people start to formulate, well, what happened to her and who could have been involved?”

I think that's when the pool of potential suspects tends to increase, and so everyone starts to look at everybody. Detective Lamb might consider everybody, but based on records, it really looks like back in the day at least. Simee Valley PD really only looked hard at one person, and it's probably not who you think.

When Lindsay went missing, she wasn't carrying her first pregnancy. She had an older daughter with her ex David She-Han.

And one of Lindsay's friends, a woman named Karen Vermarsh, made a point to tell police that the relationship between Lindsay and David had been volatile. Karen recalled that about six months prior to this conversation that she'd spoke to Lindsay about her relationship with David She-Han. And during that conversation, Lindsay had told Karen that during the relationship with David, David had been abusive towards her. She thought that this was important, and then passing information on to take to parks.

In his report, Detective Parks didn't go into detail about the abuse that Karen reported to them. Not what kind of abuse, not about how long it supposedly went on, or if anything continued after they separated. Even though I wasn't with her, like she was a, we were like a big part of each other's life at the time.

“Like kind of, you know, maybe not in relationship, why is it that at the point that this happened?”

But like, I still like, it's hard for me to imagine that something happened to her. That, of course, is David She-Han. She was really, if he kind of liked, and just like easy going, fun loving, she didn't like sit there and talk to that about people very often. David, for his park, didn't deny any abuse when we asked him about it. He said he remembered when things got physical, back when they were together.

Both times were over another guy. I'm not going to say that nothing's ever happened physically between people. But I was a young boy, a young man or whatever, and she was a, like, and, like, so we would have, like, little, like, like fights.

Not not so much always physically, but like, you know what I mean?

“Yeah, she had that bad temper too. That's what I'm saying, like, she was crazy.”

Like, I'm not crazy. She's awesome. But like, she was a young, feisty little mama dude. And like, I don't remember what I did, but I pissed her off. And so when I was walking away, she punched me in the back of the head. And then, like, she tried to, like, swing in a grab your hand and, like, bend her wrist a little bit. As is the pattern with many volatile relationships, David says they always worked it out.

But there were complicating factors in both of their lives that set the relationship up to be doomed. Namely, drugs. Based on our interviews both David and Lindsay had histories with drug use. The way David remembers it neither he nor Lindsay actually had custody of their daughter. David's parents likely did.

So he says that he didn't have much contact with Lindsay in the time leading up to her going missing. Which maybe is one reason why Detective Lam told our reporter Kate Michigan that there doesn't seem to be any record of David being interviewed. Ever. I mean, documentation seems to be, there's nothing that suggests that he wasn't interviewed, but there's no documentation of him being interviewed in the reports that we have access to.

So, could they record it and just not typed it possibly? Yeah. What if they didn't talk to him at all? I can't, I can't see why they wouldn't interviewed him. But yeah, we don't have that. I think that that would be a, that would be a foundational interview.

It would be when you're talking to family and friends. I think that that would be included considering they share a child in common. It's hard to get a temperature on the initial approached this investigation because there was no evidence of foul play. That led them to believe that this was anything but a missing person.

Kind of conversations and not really delving into a full investigative interview because you think something suspicious occurred. So, the approach to the investigation originally from what I can tell is as a missing person's case.

“And so, how hard do you press people for information?”

If you have no foundation that something occurred apart from Lindsay voluntarily leaving, if that makes sense. David actually has an explanation for why they probably didn't come talk to him in person, at least in the very beginning. He says that he was in a residential rehab in Tarzanna, about 20 minutes from CME Valley, closer to LA. If there's any way Detective Lam could verify this now, this would give David a pretty rock-solid alibi. David says that because he was in rehab, he actually didn't even know Lindsay had gone missing until his mom called to tell him.

So, the first time that he came out on the news, I guess, like we didn't think about it, like I was in rehab, because I missed it and I couldn't find it, but my mom knew about it.

This is the one that initiated that call. But they, like, please did not go to you that, like, in 1999 in rehab. I don't know. No, I didn't talk to them for a long time. But a few weeks after Lindsay went missing, the she-hands took on a project that caught the eye of CME Valley detectives.

“I think that there is concern that the she-hands, at their residence at the time, had built a shed on their property.”

And the timing was quite suspicious. I don't exactly know when it was, I think it was a couple weeks after Lindsay's disappearance. But, again, as an investigator, I think they're looking at all options, and could that be a place where you can conceal a body, sure. So, I think that was something on the radar of the investigators at the time to see if they could access that concrete pad. I think they built a shed on their property, which was on top of the concrete pad,

and could there be some potential that Lindsay could be buried there, possibly. This was, of course, something Kate made sure to ask David about. Did it have to say something about, like, you guys had a concrete shed at your house after Lindsay went missing? Do you, to that? No, no, no, no.

But see, the thing is, oh, it rings more than a bell, because the day that we were pouring a concrete slab, because we were building, the house was only a one-bedroom house, and it was me, my mom, my daughters, and my dad was staying down in a little bungalow garage thing. So, we were trying to put up a 10 by 12 room addition thing, because that's the biggest shed you could build without getting permits.

“And so, like, we were going to put one together, and that's what we were doing.”

David remembers this interaction with police being more like a rate about drugs, not about Lindsay's disappearance. And David's open about his drug use and what he calls non-people crimes. And honestly, I don't know how far off his interpretation is, because whatever they were suspicious of in 1999, it's not like they tore up the concrete or anything like that.

Now, by the one-year mark, there was very little progress in Lindsay's case. But June of 2000 brought a significant milestone for Lindsay's mom, Donna Best.

Lindsay's daughter had just turned five, and Donna Belied Lindsay would never miss her daughter's fifth birthday.

Some more than anything before that, it was this date that made Donna Belied, her daughter wasn't coming back. She called Belize and told them as much. And in a vulnerable moment, she shared with them that she was losing hope. Unfortunately, we couldn't speak to Donna ourselves, because she since passed away. And though Lindsay has a younger brother, we weren't able to get in touch with him for this episode.

Nothing changed, for the rest of 2000, even into 2001. Except for a changing of the guard. 2001 is when the case changed hands from detective parks to see me valley detective Jay Carrot.

And detective Carrot was the first, at least from what I can tell, to really look at the possibility of foul play, seemingly prompted by a new tip.

They received information that a potential witness, Miles Henley, heard that David Sheehan was talking about getting rid of a dead pregnant woman. And since Miles and David both happened to be in jail at the time for totally unrelated crimes, he gave police an opportunity. Miles Henley had been put into a cell with David Sheehan in order to try and elicit information regarding the statement that Miles Henley had made.

David told us he knew Miles distantly. Miles had like dated a cousin of his.

“But he was surprised when he ran into Miles in jail.”

The conversation started casually enough. Miles was asking about when he was getting out. Well, what about your other case? And I'm like, what other case? He's all the one with your kids mom that's missing. And I go, what are you talking about?

Well, I let him get away with that one or two times as time goes on in there.

And I finally couldn't take it.

And I told him, look, I'm going to tell you right now. Like, that was it. Don't bring her up again. Because the thing is, that's just offensive subject for me, bro. And that's like if your mom just died, and I sit there and keep telling you.

So how do you feel about your mom dying, dude? Like, to me, it's like, you're like, I didn't know what the deal was. But I just got fed up with it, and I told him, look, if you bring it up again, either you wait out in the showers for me when it's shower time. Or I'll wait for you.

But we're fighting, dude, if you bring it up again. And so then he brought it up again, and I go, all right, dude. You know what, bro? I said, I'll be in the showers waiting for you. And he's like, no, dude, listen, dude.

He's like, the reason I bring it up is because remember the other night when I got taken out for a stomach ache. And I do remember excels on the top tier, and I see the whole thing. And I thought, that's weird. First stomach ache, they take you out. There was two homicide detectives, just a district attorney,

some other cops, and he asked me if I'd wear a wire on you.

“And I just remember feeling like cold thinking, what the fuck you?”

And then all of a sudden he goes, but I told him that every time that I bring it up to you, you get mad at me. And so now I don't want to wear a wire because I think that they're tripping. And I don't know what the truth of it matters. All of it knows that.

So I ended up going to prison that time and getting out, right? Well, in the morning, okay, I'll tell you this. In the morning, after he told me, like, but by like three in the morning,

he was moved out of the section, and I never seen him again.

Detectively, I'm isn't quite sure what to make of Miles' story so many years later. Was it completely made up? Was he trying to redirect attention from someone else on to David? David to be clear, denies any involvement in Lindsay's disappearance. And although he doesn't have a firm idea why Miles would agree to be an informant

and seem to back out, David did tell us something interesting. The same way that he wasn't close to Miles, but kind of knew him. So did John. But that's really where the trail ended. And there is not much documented in the case for the rest of 2001.

Or really any of the years that followed. There's just one blip in 2009 when a film crew, two dogs, a medium, and a famous movie ranch gave them a new idea. In June 2009, detective carrot was still working the case when he heard from a show called Soul Evidence.

If you haven't heard of Soul Evidence, that's because the pilot that they film never aired.

But the premise was that psychic medium Alice and Dubois would team up with retired detective John Perkins and a forensic scientist who specialized in crime scene reconstruction just solved cold cases. The production team had picked Lindsay's case to investigate, which led them to a conversation with David, and then to Miles, who told his story to the crew that he heard David got rid of Lindsay at Whiteface Mountains next to Big Sky Ranch in Seamy Valley.

That, in addition to a second psychic medium's vision of a canyon and loose dirt, took them to an area of Big Sky Ranch, recognizable from little house on the prairie and twin peaks. So the show brought two cadaver dogs to see if they might be able to detect some human remains. The first certified dog showed an indication at Big Sky Ranch, and the handler said a second dog, a not certified dog, had indicated in the same area as the first.

So Seamy Valley got LA County Sheriff's to send over two cadaver dogs of their own. They all met at the North End of Toppo Canyon Road, a windy road that cut through Seamy Valley's mountains surrounded by wild flowers and rolling hills. The dog, Kazam, gave what is called a full alert, meaning the dog found something within a 50-foot square. Then the handler repeated the process twice more for safety. Kazam alerted both times, then a second uncertified dog named Flash went out.

Flash also gave a full alert.

“But the question doesn't rise, like, was it human remains, was it cattle remains?”

I know they had received information from the owners of that area that land that a lot of cattle is buried out there. And so could that be providing a false positive possibly?

No?

“To they dig up the whole area, do they take core samples, do they utilize other technology that's available to them?”

I don't know. So I think at the moment, in that time, they didn't do anything with it.

Also taking into consideration the original source of, like, out of all the other theories and possibilities. And follow up that needs to be done where is this on the priority list. And so, I don't know. I don't know why I know additional fall was taken at that point in time. When we followed up with Detective Lam, he confirmed some additional info. In June 2009, the police actually did take 15 soil samples from the site all over the area.

That soil still exists, and apparently is still with the private company that they used back in 2009 to test it.

The problem is, there aren't any records of what the test results were.

Whether there was or wasn't an indication of human decomp there, or if it was inconclusive.

“I think there's a lot of considerations to take in regards to how to approach them.”

Like, like I said, with a big scared, do you just dig it all up or do you use technology to probe to be taking new dogs out there now? And see if they provide the same hits of the dogs that did back in 2009. So there's different ways to approach it.

But ultimately, I think that's it, right?

There's leads that need to be followed up on. Again, I know we've talked, but even if they've resumed that ends, at least we can close them out. It seems like Detective Lam might have a lot of the right pieces to be able to get a warrant to get on to big sky, where those dogs hit all those years ago. If nothing else, maybe he can go to the property owners and get permission.

It remains ever or found. There, or anywhere else, police could try to match them against DNA they collected from Lindsay's mom and brother, which has been entered into nameless in case any unidentified remains turn up anywhere nationwide. Detective Lam has his work cut out for him. He says he imagines his role like that of a football player, picking up the ball and carrying it down the field a little farther. He might not make the touchdown, but if he does his job right, he should make progress.

“Rather than going back and not necessarily criticizing how the investigation was done, but knowing what we know now and applying them to the situation back then, what would we have done different?”

If we knew that Lindsay was going to be missing for the next 30 years, how would we approach this investigation off the jump-up point initially and would have been much different probably? Somebody out there knows something that we don't know yet and that we can kind of propel this case forward beyond anything that we currently have. And I think that that's our hope in doing this is that that person will come forward, provide us that information that we need. You can kind of bring some closure to this case.

If you're that person, you can email Detective Lam at cla and at cmyvalley.org. Or you can call the department's tip line for the case 805-58369-11. And so it takes things like the deck of cards to kind of spring, just either in jails or podcasts like this to get it out to the public to stir it and bring it back to life. And so hopefully it will be a cool case for long, so we'll see. We'll see if we can just cross it.

The deck is an audio truck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the deck and our advocacy work visit thedeckpodcast.com. I think Chuck would approve.