Ep 1: The Phone Call

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Not a law enforcement emergency.

Ma'am, this is Carl Everett. I live out on Long Mile Road.

Uh-huh.

My wife and I have been up to a little meeting up today.

Right. And my son was here,

and I just got home about 10 minutes ago,

eight inches to a foot. You know, it wasn't shut, good.

And the phone was ringing,

and it was someone on the other end of the line saying they've kidnapped my son.

Okay.

And they're demanding $500,000.

if I want to see him alive and well again.

And they're going to call me in the morning at 8 o'clock.

How old is your son? He'll soon be 13.. Okay. Where did you last see your son?

Well, my wife was behind me in her car. She's not here yet, and she saw him last.

And I've asked myself so many times, what in the world happened? Your life will never be the same. You will never look at another person the same, because they could be thinking evil, but smiling at you like they're your friend.

What's your son's name? His name is McKay, M-C-K-A-Y, Everett. E-V-E-R-E-T-T.

Okay. What does your son look like? He's about 5'1", weighs 100 pounds, short hair. He wears braces. He's got blue rubber pants on.

No, it wasn't an older person.

It was kind of had a raspy type voice, and it was female.

And, uh.

Well, we have several officers on the radio here, and it's okay.

On September 12, 1995, 12-year-old McKay Everett disappeared from his home in Conroe, Texas. My name's Art Rascone, and, as a news anchor based in nearby Houston, I'd covered the kidnapping's aftermath. It was a crime that shocked the community because of its twists and turns and how unexpected the perpetrator ended up being. It's a story that's always stuck with me, and recently, when I looked back into it, I realized I wasn't the only one. Friends, neighbors, and law enforcement were all still haunted by McKay's kidnapping, but no one more than McKay's mother, Paulette.

It became very disturbing when we thought about it in hindsight, and we, you know, we sat there and blamed ourselves for not seeing indications like that. But, you know, we thought he cared for McKay, when, in fact, he didn't care for anyone.

When I found out that, to this day, McKay's mother, Paulette, still feels that justice was never truly served, I knew this was a story that had to be told. From KSL Podcasts, this is Ransom, a story of greed and betrayal, grief and survival, and how we never know what's really going on in the minds of those around us.

My name is Paulette, Everett, Norman, and McKay was my only child.

It was September 1995.

I cooked him breakfast, and his dad drove him to school.

That very morning, McKay's father, Carl, took a photo of him standing outside their home. McKay tucked his dark, baggy T-shirt into his jean shorts, slung his backpack over one shoulder, and gave his dad a shy, closed-mouth smile.

He was 12 1⁄2 years old, at that age that he didn't want to be hugged down by his parents.

But even though public affection embarrassed McKay, he'd found a workaround, using his favorite football team, the Lions.

He would say, how about those Lions? Meaning, I love you. And that was the last thing that McKay said to his dad.

The day McKay disappeared, Paulette picked him up after school.

When he got home, he just wanted some downtime, which is understandable, you know, being at school all day. Part of our yard was wooded, and he muttered around for a little bit. And I would say, just, you know, take about an hour and relax.

Haley Kahn and her mother, Nancy, lived across the street from the Everett's. They'd often see McKay outside, building forts in the woods, or even playing music in the yard.

Was it the trumpet that he was learning? And he'd be out there for hours, just the whole neighborhood, but hear the beginnings of someone learning how to play a trumpet.

He was one of those kind of kids that you can't wait to see what he's gonna do next. Very creative and very, just, really adventurous, but just a really sweet little boy.

Back then, Conroe was the place you moved to if you wanted to live near Houston, but in more of a small town environment.

It was kind of a magical little place to grow up because of the fact that there wasn't, you know, cars to run us over, or, you know, we didn't think about strangers being around. And we had a field next door to the Everett's house that had blackberries, just like crazy. So in the summer times, we would, you know, pick blackberries. It was real, pretty innocent.

There was a lot of ownership. This was, you know, a small group of families, a few families, and this was our place.

The day McKay disappeared, after unwinding outside, he went straight to the piano.

He loved the piano. He would prepare for his lessons, but then he loved to just play on the piano and have fun.

McKay was a musical kid. He played piano, trumpet, guitar, and the violin.

When he was four, he wanted a violin for Christmas, and he did not like the person that I had hired to teach him violin. And he said, I'll teach him myself. And so we were going on a trip one day. He said, wait a minute. And he sat down and played, and he taught himself Amazing Grace.

Oh my goodness, wow. He was a prodigy in many ways, huh?

Well, he was really, my mother's side of the family. are honky-tonkers. Okay. And so McKay would say, when I get older, I'm gonna go honking-tonking. And so I think some of that just was natural talent.

But while music came easy for McKay, he struggled with his schoolwork. That day, after McKay finished at the piano, Paulette sat down with him to go over his assignments, something they had done since McKay was in the first grade.

McKay had a slight dyslexia. And when he started school, every afternoon, I tutored, tutored, tutored, because Carl did not want him to repeat first grade. And he really probably should have, but Carl's ego was just not strong enough to handle that. So that meant, you know, McKay had to be tutored every day by me. And I just felt like that just isn't quite fair, but you know, and Carl wasn't there to do it.

Paulette was the one tutoring McKay, in part because her husband, Carl, was often traveling for work. And while Paulette sometimes resented having to tutor McKay, spending so much time with him had made the two of them extremely close.

I had talked so much to him because Carl was gone during the week when oil and gas was busy. So I would talk to McKay like he was an adult.

Paulette's husband, Carl, had started his own small oil company in 1983, the same year McKay was born. And Paulette had quit her job teaching elementary school to help out with the business. For a while, the Everetts did well for themselves. They rode the oil boom of the late 80s and made good money. But by the early 90s, oil prices were down and Carl was getting burnt out.

The idea of not having to work hard in the oil patch sounded good.

And recently, Carl had heard about a new way to make money. Welcome to Amway and the Amway Business Opportunity. As you open the kit and discover the many Amway products inside that box, how about congratulating yourself? First, for taking your first step towards building a business of your own.

I think the draw to it was, you know, you could have the income coming in.

As with any opportunity, feeling uncertain right now is only natural. Amway is a company that sells wholesale products that members could buy and then resell at a profit.

They sell everything.

But Amway is a multi-level marketing program. You make money not just by selling products, but also by recruiting more people into Amway.

You know, they sell your bill of goods, but a lot of the people that got involved with that, they just dove in.

While Paulette was skeptical, Carl was one of those people that just dove right in. Before long, their garage was full of boxes of Amway products that Carl was trying to unload on family and friends. And Carl was also trying to recruit new Amway members. In fact, on September 12th, 1995, the night that McKay disappeared, Carl was hosting an Amway meeting at a bank building downtown. And one of Carl's friends, Hilton Crawford, was supposed to bring some potential recruits.

He called and wanted to know if we were going to the meeting.

The plan was Carl would head to the meeting straight from work, and Paulette would carpool over with a neighbor and leave McKay at the house.

I got him dinner, and he wanted ice cream after dinner.

Paulette's neighbor, Randy Bartlett, came over around 7.

It was raining, and I just thought the lights might go out, you never know, so I gave him a flashlight.

Paulette remembers waving goodbye to McKay as she left.

I could see him inside the door waving bye. You know, just a typical kid, lanky, you know, you go through that phase in life when your nose looks like it's the most prominent thing on your face.

When they got to the Amway meeting, Paulette thinks there were probably about 30 people.

Whoever showed up, showed up, and who didn't, didn't.

When Carl got there, he launched into his pitch.

Just, you know, sign up people and sell, sell, sell.

After the meeting, the group got coffee at a nearby restaurant. Carl tried calling McKay at home, but couldn't reach him. Carl said he was worried that maybe the storm had knocked down the power lines and wanted to check on McKay. So he left early and drove back home. Half an hour after Carl left, Paulette's neighbor, Randy, got a phone call.

Randy tells me McKay's missing.

You could hear Paulette screaming his name. It was just a real eerie feeling.

That's Nancy Kahn, the neighbor that lived across the street from Carl and Paulette.

Whenever I think back on this whole situation, that is the one thing that I still can't get out of my head. It was just shrill and desperate, just pleading for him to come home if he's out there somewhere. It was, you know, a parent's worst nightmare, and you could hear it in their voices.

Shortly after calling 911, Carl knocked on Nancy Kahn's door.

Maybe around 10 o'clock or whatever, Carl had come and asked us if we had seen McKay.

Nancy told Carl she hadn't seen him, but her husband, Bill, had seen something strange that night between 8.

My husband had taken trash out that night, and when he did, he saw a car go into their driveway, because our driveways were exactly across from each other. So he saw a car go in to the driveway, and he didn't think anything of it, so he put the trash cans out, and then he went back to the house. I had, you know, one more bag of trash that I wanted him to take back out to the street, and so when he did, the car that he saw go in was coming out quite fast,

It was a tantalizing lead, a golden Chrysler with a crown sticker on the back left bumper leaving the Everett's home. But the investigation was just getting started, and the FBI was about to arrive.

Hey, producer Ben Kubrick here. One of the reasons I love true crime is the mystery, and if you're into mysteries, you'll love June's Journey. June's Journey is a fascinating game on iPhone and Android set in the 1920s, where you investigate your sister's murder and you discover scandalous family secrets on the way. In the game, you solve puzzles where you have to sort of find details in the scenes. You also decorate an island estate with gardens and beautiful buildings, and you can even join a detective club where you chat with or play against other players, and as you progress, you learn more about what was going on in your sister's life before she died.

I heard the original call go out that the boy had gone missing from the house.

Sheriff's deputy, Sam Lynch, was patrolling in Conroe the night McCaig disappeared.

And didn't pay a lot of attention to it, because on an average month, we would get 10 kidnapping reports, and nine of them would be parental involvement, and the 10th one would be just a kid that didn't come home. So I didn't know what was going on. I didn't pay particular attention to it. I just continued what I was doing. And when Deputy Zenor got on the scene, within just a minute or two, he called for a supervisor emergency.

On his way to the Everett's, Deputy Lynch alerted his superiors, who in turn alerted the FBI. Normally the FBI only gets involved in interstate crimes, but after the sensational kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932, Congress allowed the FBI to investigate kidnappings of children 12 or younger.

I met Deputy Zenor out on the front walk of the house. He told me at that time that Mr. Everett, McCaig's dad, had said that a ransom call had been received already, had come home and found McCaig gone, the back door was open, and it sounded like the real deal.

Carl gave Lynch more details about the phone call. He said the phone had begun ringing as soon as he walked in the door. And when he answered, a woman with a raspy voice told him she'd kidnapped his son. Carl said he'd demanded to speak to McCaig, but the woman said that that was impossible. She said if he wanted to see his son again, he'd need to pay the ransom, $500,000 in $100 bills.

There was no sign of forced entry. The back door was unlocked and open. No sign of it having been pried on, no broken glass. It was just as if McCaig had walked out of his own free will.

You know, we had taken all sorts of precautions. We had an alarm system. We had a hidden room. We had told him, if you feel threatened, go in there and lock yourself in. We lived in a very large home, a very elegant, well-appointed home, and it was just an awareness of, might need to do that.

Carl told the officers that McCaig knew not to open the door for strangers. The year before, an alarm had gone off at a neighbor's house, and the sheriff's deputy went to the Everett's home to ask if they'd seen anything. But McCaig was home alone, and he had refused to open the door for the officer.

That told us pretty quickly that McCaig either recognized who it was and let them in, or they knew enough to answer and ask the right questions. We'll never know exactly what got him out of the house, but it was just a fairly sterile scene, as far as evidence goes.

After examining the back door, the one that Carl said he had found left open, Sergeant Lynch entered the Everett's house.

Large living room, lots of seating areas. I remember that because there were so many people in the house when we got there.

When Carl had found McCaig missing, he'd called close friends and neighbors to ask them if they'd seen McCaig. Most had dropped everything to offer any help they could.

Probably five or six neighbors and friends were there. It wasn't chaotic, but it was a very busy, busy environment. Everyone there is a suspect, but not treated as such, because we don't want to alienate anyone, because everyone, while they may be a suspect, they're also a witness. We would want to find out wherever one was, what they were doing, just the smallest detail. It turned out to be the smallest detail that one of the neighbors provided.

One of Carl's friends, John Husbands, was there in the living room that night.

There were several close friends. I just remember Carl and Randy and I and Bill Conn from across the street. It was a nightmare.

John Husbands was surprised by how fast the FBI showed up.

That night, sometime about one o'clock, I had come out the front door of Carl's house and they had a camper backed up in the driveway.

Just hours after Carl called 911, the FBI arrived with a trailer to set up a mobile command post outside the Everett's home.

I remember coming out the front door and two of those agents came from that trailer over there and it was almost like they were looking for him. I said, Mr. Husbands, I've got a question for you. It was about the timing that I had given. They said, you said Mr.

Anytime there's a kidnapping, the father is one of the first suspects. John Husbands remembers. one FBI agent in particular seemed to be keeping an eye on Carl.

There was a guy there that was as spooky as you can imagine. I don't mean devil spooky. That guy, you look into his eyes and I guarantee you, this guy could read your mind. I swear to God he could. I don't mean it ugly.

I remember him. He stood in the door and he listened and he listened. He was like Clint Eastwood. is what I thought. He had, that demeanor.

The FBI had Paulette and Carl make three lists.

Their questioning was very systematic. We had to describe our friends who fit the profile of doing something like this.

The FBI also had to prepare for the ransom call, which Carl said was to come at 8 a.

So that night, the FBI was getting set up. They were tapping the phones and on and on and on. You know, it was just, they were getting themselves ready and making their plans to hear where to deliver the ransom money.

Carl said the ransomers had asked for his cell phone number, but calls to cell phones were harder to trace. So the FBI advised Carl to turn off his cell. Agents hoped that if the ransomers couldn't get through to Carl's cell phone, they'd call his home phone instead. Of course, there was a risk to the plan as well, that with the cell off, they'd miss the ransomers' call altogether. Beth Martin was the FBI supervisor on scene.

When I got to the Everett home, Mrs. Everett was very, very concerned, very overwrought. Mr. Everett was coming up and down the stairs a few times. He too was, you know, very agitated.

Agents were trying to coach Carl about what to do when the follow-up ransom call arrived.

We were going over and over it, and Mr. Everett was just stressed out. You know, at some point, I think Mr. Everett was saying, oh, that's an awful lot of money, and I don't know if I can get it. You know, I mean, it was just stuff that somebody who's just totally stressed out would say.

On the surface, the Everetts appeared very well off. They owned a business. They'd built their own dream house. Carl even had a private plane. But FBI interviews with associates indicated the Everetts were having trouble paying bills.

You know, you really gotta do everything. Really fast because things change. So the whole office cooperates on something like that and does as much as they can.

Kidnappings were a rare crime, but not unheard of in Houston in the 90s.

We've had all these drug kidnappings and a lot of abductions of children. And it was just crazy. The drug kidnappings were always bad. We had a baby thrown off a bridge. It was a drug deal.

Knowing, 12-year-old McKay was out there somewhere, terrified for his life, law enforcement worked through the night. Officers searched the parking lots of local motels for cars that resembled the yellow Dodge or Chrysler that the neighbor Bill Kahn had seen. They worked to get $500,000 in cash for the ransom. And FBI agents followed up on a new lead. As word had spread of McKay's disappearance, investigators learned that McKay's friend from school, Elizabeth, had talked to him on the phone that night.

The amount of stress when your child is missing or in danger is unbelievable. I had never experienced that kind of stress before, have not since. I didn't know what was happening, but my left arm started pulling. I started dragging my right leg. My voice started slowing.

At around 7 a.

Hello? Carl? Yes. Mike Mays?

Hey, Mike. I just got word. Anything I can do or need to do, or whatever,

and then I'll get off the phone.

No, not right now, Mike. We're waiting on a phone call. Okay, if you need anything, just let me know. I just wanna hang this up, it's me.

I know, I just can't believe this. I appreciate you, Carl.

Okay, just let me know if I'm thinking about you.

All right. Okay.

Call after call came in. From concerned friends and family. Hello?

Carl? Yeah.

Hilton, what in the world's going on? Hey, Hilton. I don't know, I'm trying to find my son this morning.

I called Connie.

Somebody kidnapped him last night. Are you sure? Yeah.

Where you at?

I had a meeting in Phil's this morning, and I'm heading back that way right now.

Come see me at 12.

Okay.

Hey. It's Ricky. Hey, Rick.

Hey, is McCain not home?

McCain's been out for a little while.

I'm trying to locate him today.

Okay, well, Miss Jett just called and said somebody kidnapped him. Well, we're trying to figure that out. Okay. But we're waiting on a phone call. Okay, well, I'm at work, if you need me.

But the phone call from the ransomers never arrived.

It raised some eyebrows, let's put it that way.

Some investigators were beginning to question whether Carl was telling them the full story.

You always look at the parents. It's kind of like the person that finds a body, that's the person you look at first. But, you know, as a parent, we found it hard to believe that a parent would go to this extreme, because the question is, what would they benefit from doing it? That was one of the main questions we had.

Maybe the ransomers had tried to reach Carl on his cell phone. Remember, the FBI had Carl turn his cell phone off. Or maybe the ransomers had somehow found out that the FBI were involved and they'd gotten spooked. Regardless, the investigation was just getting started and the Everett's house became the FBI's home base.

Each room had a purpose. It was like commanded by the FBI. You know, the kitchen area and everything, that was to feed people. The library is where we met with the profiler. If somebody just had to rest, they could take McKay's bedroom, but they used that too to have clothes for the hound dogs to sniff.

The next step for law enforcement was to see whether everyone's story checked out. And that meant polygraphing people.

I kept a nursery and a home, whether we had a small child or not. And so that was the polygraph room. Kind of a box-like machine with the little needle that squeezes and scratches around.

And the very first person the FBI wanted to polygraph was Carl Everett, McKay's father.

He loved the ponies, but the ponies loveth him not. He was like four or $500,000 in debt.

Parents in the community were locking up their kids. It really kind of had a chilling effect on everyone.

This is one of two cases that I worked in 25 years.

that stay with me all the time.

His story has always bothered me. The fact that the story really never came out.

I was yelling at McKay going, look at me, just look at me one more time. And he never turned around.

This is what she told us, that Crawford knew of a person that wanted to break up from her husband.

Law enforcement personnel were pretty much split down the middle over whether or not he actually did this. She wanted to stage a kidnapping.

to get the ransom money for her to start a new life. And let me tell you,

if there had been just a little bit more evidence,

I would have indicted her.

He didn't do all this by himself, did he? You know, and there was supposed to be a ransom call earlier and all that. So there's other people out there that haven't been arrested. So are they going to try to come after us?

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