Skip to content
712 // Craig Frear episode artwork

Sep 21, 2026 45 min

712 // Craig Frear

from Missing Hosted by Crawlspace Media

In this new episode, ⁠⁠Crawlspace Media⁠⁠'s Tim Pilleri and Lance Reenstierna discuss the mysterious disappearance of Craig Frear from Scotia, New York on June 27th, 2004. 17 year old Craig Frear vanished on June 27, 2004, in Scotia, New York, after parking his car at an apartment complex and walking into the surrounding woods. Despite extensive searches of the area by authorities, he has never been found, and his family and law enforcement suspect he may have met with foul play. If you have any information in Craig's disappearance please call the New York State Police at 518-630-1700 or email [email protected]. Check out Quince: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://quince.com/MISSING⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out Kensington Publishing: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.kensingtonbooks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sources: http://charleyproject.org/case/craig-allen-frear. https://troopers.ny.gov/missing-frear-craig. https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/993450/1. https://skipboring.com/craig-frear-vanished-glenville-2004/. https://thedeckpodcast.com/craig-frear/. Main podcast theme by Kevin Macleod. Check out his work at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://incompetech.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Additional music by David Williams. See his work at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠http://williamsflutes.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Missing: IG: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/MissingCSM/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Youtube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/missingcsm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. FB:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/MissingCSM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/MissingCSM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Spotify:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/0yRXkJrZC85otfT7oXMcri⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Apple:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/missing/id1006974447⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Crawlspace: IG:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/Crawlspacepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. TT:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@crawlspacepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. FB:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/Crawlspacepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/crawlspacepod.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Spotify:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/7iSnqnCf27NODdz0pJ1GvJ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Youtube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/crawlspace⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Apple:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crawlspace-true-crime-mysteries/id1187326340⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Check out our entire network at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://crawlspace-media.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

712 // Craig Frear

0:00 45:55
of matches

Transcript Auto-generated, may contain errors

In today's new episode of Missing, we are discussing the mysterious disappearance of Craig Allen Freer on June 27, 2004, after walking into a wooded area near the Cambridge Manor Apartments in Scotia, New York. And he left behind his car, cell phone, and personal belongings following a phone call with his mother about having lost his job. Lance, what'd you make of this story? Well, it's one of those stories that we're going to explore here, which has to do a lot with the psychological breakdown of a young man, of an individual who seems to have a lot going for him, but there's obviously something that's happening there and there's some break that's sort of imminent, you know? And it's always tragic to talk about these cases where somebody just kind of apparently wanders off. Somebody walks off and that's it. And then it's just left with no answers and the family is left kind of reeling. But there's a lot of details here that, you know, make you...

wonder exactly what is happening and scratch your head. So can't wait to get into it again. You said that people are able to comment on this, interact with us. This is why we do the live shows. It's great to see people so engaged with these stories that we're telling. So thank you to everybody who's watching and hoping to get some more people and make sure to comment. We will try to respond as we can. Great. And just some info here about Greg before we get started. He was 17 years old at the time of his disappearance, 5'11", 190 pounds, was last seen wearing a white short-sleeved t-shirt, blue jeans, orange jeans, shorts, and Adidas sneakers with three black stripes.

He also had a gold chain on, and he is a white male with red hair, brown eyes, and his nickname is Krieger. Anyone with information regarding Craig Freer's disappearance is urged to contact the New York State Police at 518-630-1700 or email crimetip at troopers.ny.gov. Okay, so let us know what you think of this case on YouTube or Spotify, and please follow us on social media at MissingCSM. We are going to break quick here for commercial, and we'll be right back to discuss the disappearance of Craig Freer. You know, there's nothing quite like having pieces in your closet that you love and you know you can count on for any occasion. Except maybe giving someone else that same feeling. So this holiday season, Quince is where I'm finding those pieces. Quince is amazing. They make elevated everyday essentials using premium materials like Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and premium stretch denim. The kind of pieces you'd be just as happy gifting as you would be to unwrap. Their 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters start at just $50, and their 14-karat gold earrings and bracelets are the easy way to polish any look, making them thoughtful gifts for anyone in your life. And everything at Quince is priced 50-80% less than similar brands.

They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middleman so you can give luxury quality pieces without the luxury price tag. I got myself a wonderful 100% Mongolian cashmere sweater that I love and I wear on basically every recording. And I think I'm gonna get one for my dad too this holiday season. Well, that's nice. I think I'm going to get the flow knit breeze long sleeve top for a certain someone in my life as well. So give the gift of quality this holiday season and download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK as well. And when Quince asks where you heard from them, let them know it was missing.

It's the best way to support the show. So Craig Allen Freer was born on October 14th, 1986, and he grew up in a supportive, close-knit family in the suburban town of Glenville, New York. Raised by his parents, Morris Bill and Veronica Freer, alongside his brother Matthew, Craig was deeply integrated into his local community and very close to his family. And by June of 2004, Craig was 17. He completed his junior year at high school at Scotia Glenville High School. He was known affectionately to his friends and family. As you mentioned, Tim, his nickname was Krieger. He was widely regarded as an energetic, popular, and clean-cut teenager. No history of behavioral issues, no criminal record. And it seems odd to say that somebody so young would have no enemies, but he really didn't seem to have anybody who disliked him. So he seemed like an all-around likable guy. Yeah, and he was an exceptional athlete, too. He rose to prominence as a star soccer player and co-captain of the Scotia Glenville High School varsity team.

school athletics he played for the competitive black watch soccer club and his talent on the field caught the attention of several college recruiters however craig regularly expressed a desire to attend college to study elementary education so look at that he was interested in becoming an elementary school teacher which i think is kind of rare for somebody that young to have that goal that professional goal in mind to have that like kind of occur to him that that would be something that he was good at i think that's really impressive i think that shows that he's got a broad range of interests and he did he had a broad range of interests and he had a broad range in his social circles as well he had friends that spanned from teammates on his high school soccer team. He had friends, fellow players at Blackwatch, co-workers from his job, and various friends outside of his immediate social school network. And what's really notable here is these social groups rarely overlapped, meaning very few of these individuals possessed a complete view of Craig's personal life. So he gave little sections of what he was interested in when he was interacting with different sections of people in his life. Right.

And in April of 2004, which is two months before Craig's disappearance, he took a job as a clerk at the local Price Chopper supermarket in Glenville. And in the weeks leading up to June, however, investigators and family members later noted subtle shifts in his behavior. And he appeared unusually withdrawn and secretive. He spent more time at home than usual. The problems at work with his behavior was unknown to his parents at the time.

Craig, though, had also previously walked away from home once during a or after a minor family disagreement. And during that incident, he returned on his own within 24 hours. So certainly relevant to note here. Right. And I don't know if what the minor argument was about. I don't know if that was something that should be significant in this conversation, like specifically what was the argument about. But the result of it shows that he apparently needed to either take some time for himself or maybe prove a point to the person or persons that he was having the argument with. Like, look what happens when.

You disagree or we get upset. You know, look what happens when you don't, I don't want to say respect me, but look what happens when we have sort of a falling out or disagreement. I don't know if that has anything to do with his personality. Right. I think what's interesting there is that, how old was he when that happened? I don't know. It's not in our research here, but because he's only 17 when he went missing. So, I mean.

This is potentially a very serious moment if he's like eight or something like that. I don't know. I'm guessing he was probably more like 14 or 15, probably. So it's just a little bit of a pattern, I guess, as far as we know right now. Right. And his parents must have been really grateful when he did return within 24 hours or right around 24 hours, which is something that I wonder looking at the current disappearance. Like, did they think that this would be something else that he would return from in a couple of days or a day? So this must have been sort of a layer to the torment that they were going through.

So on the morning of Sunday, June 27, 2004, Craig prepared to leave his family's home on Yorkshire Court, and he carried his Price Chopper uniform shirt out to his car, giving his parents the impression that he was headed to a scheduled work shift at the supermarket. But in reality, Craig was no longer working at Price Chopper, and he had been terminated from his position approximately a month earlier after failing to show up for multiple shifts. and instead, for several weeks, Craig maintained the illusion of employment, leaving the house unscheduled to prevent his parents from finding out. Right, I don't know if he thought that this was going to be something that his parents were going to get mad about, or if he just felt ashamed about it, but for whatever reason, he chose to be secretive and not tell people about it. So moving on to June 27th, around midday, Craig's mom, Veronica, went to the Price Chopper to actually buy groceries and check in on her son. When she inquired with his coworkers, the store staff, she was informed that Craig was not on the work schedule. So she finds out just...

Kind of by chance. She goes there to buy groceries, say hi, and they're like, not only is he not here today, he doesn't work here anymore. Well, that didn't happen quite yet. Because after she found out that he wasn't on the schedule, Veronica drove around looking for his car. And she actually spotted his vehicle parked outside a local workplace where a friend was employed. And when she confronted Craig in person about why he was not at Price Chopper, he claimed that there had been a scheduling mix-up. And Veronica then accepted that explanation and returned home. Right. But she is still feeling uneasy about the situation because it does seem a little bit odd.

And what kind of place has that type of, I'm imagining as she's thinking, has that type of scheduling mix up. So she asked her husband, Bill, to drive to Price Chopper to speak directly with the store management. So it's now kind of escalating. They probably have a sense that there's more to this story here. And when Bill gets to the supermarket, he speaks with store supervisors and he then learns the truth that Craig had been dismissed from his job a month earlier and had been pretending to go to work. That's going to be really awkward. Not awkward, I guess, maybe a little awkward, but that's going to be a really interesting position for the supervisors to be in when they have to tell the parents that he was dismissed. You're telling me that he's been leaving every day for like a month?

I mean, I wouldn't even know, like, what the conversation that they had after the parents left contained, you know, consisted of. Like, everyone must be worried at this point. But how about the conversation with the parents? Like, your son was pretending for a month in your presence to go to work when he just could have told you he wasn't employed there anymore and not gone through those steps. So I guess the natural question is, where was he going then? You know, would arise for those parents. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The days that he was supposed to work, he's gone for, what, six, seven, eight hours and comes back home with his uniform on. Yeah. Kind of strange for a 17-year-old kid, right? Yeah.

So Bill called Veronica and told her about it, and she was very upset by the deception, and Veronica phoned the Cambridge Manor apartment complex in neighboring Scotia, New York, knowing that Craig's girlfriend and her mom lived there and suspecting that Craig might be there. So on her second attempt, Craig's girlfriend answered the phone, confirmed that Craig was present, and handed him the phone. Okay, so at least we know where Craig is at this point, because Veronica does speak to Craig, and there's a tense argument over the phone between Veronica and Craig regarding his job termination and all of that. deception the weeks of fabrication so his mom ordered craig to come straight home understandably so craig does agree to come home promising that he would be there shortly and he leaves and sadly of course this is the last time that veronica would ever hear her son's voice this is the last communication that she's had with him and again unfortunately it's an argument it's always tragic with these stories but even more tragic when the last interaction that a parent has with their with their child is one that's like got hostility to it intention to it and ends in an argument absolutely

Yeah, and so Bill, Craig's dad, drove directly from the Price Chopper to the Cambridge Manor Apartments, and he was looking for Craig. And so he parked near Craig's vehicle in the parking lot and waited outside for his son to emerge. And at approximately 2 p.m., Craig stepped out of the apartment building and began walking toward his car. As he approached the parking area, though, he spotted his father waiting by his vehicle. And rather than confronting him there, Craig made the sudden decision to avoid an encounter and instead turned away from his car and walked around the back of the apartment building toward a line of dense brush and woods bordering active railroad tracks. And what happens next is...

something that has become part of the current true crime missing person folklore. When you do do any sort of research into Craig's disappearance, this is always within like the headline or the first paragraph of the article or blog that you're reading. When Craig is going around the edge of the building, two local children playing outside of the building see him walking. And Craig, according to the children, he turns to the children, placed a single finger to his lips in like a shush. for them to be quiet, like you didn't see me here, gesture, asking them to remain quiet, and that's when he walks directly into the heavy woods near the railroad line. Very haunting last moment. Yeah, so this was the last verified sighting of Craig, and he vanished leaving behind his parked car, his house keys, his cell phone, and his wallet, which contained $40 in cash, which remained on top of his dresser in his bedroom. And at the time of his disappearance, Craig was 17 years old, 5'11", again weighed approximately 190, had short red hair, brown eyes, and he was last seen wearing a white short-sleeved t-shirt, blue jeans, white Adidas sneakers, and a gold chain.

And when Craig failed to return home on the afternoon of the 27th, Bill and Veronica began searching the wooded area surrounding Cambridge Manor and calling his acquaintances to see if anyone had seen him or if he had contacted them. And they find no trace of him. They contact local police later that evening to report him missing. So Bill actually never sees him when he's at the Cambridge Manor location because Craig kind of sneaks around and then tells the kids to be quiet and don't tell, you know, if anyone's looking for me. That's what that whole gesture was. So really, I don't know, like that ship's passing in the nighttime, you know, thing that just barely missed him. And because Craig was 17 years old.

and he had runaway before. Police initially treated the case as a standard juvenile runaway, and standard protocols for high-risk missing persons were not immediately initiated because of the history there, which means that no formal search perimeter was established on night one, and no tracking dogs were deployed. Oh my God, same story over and over again. Why can law enforcement make exceptions for certain things, but they never seem to make exceptions for something like this? It's always like, we're not going to waste our time because he's a...

healthy 17 year old who's done this before. So he's got a history of running away. He's probably coming back. Like if he's probably coming back, then he's probably not too far into the woods and probably pretty easy to find. So why don't you just send some, some officers out instead of being like, well, we're going directly by the book here. I don't want to get anyone in trouble. Like no one's asking them to, you know, get a helicopter team together and infrared and ground penetrating radar right now. They're just saying, can someone go look for him? Can a few cops go look for him? And the frustration continues too, because now we have jurisdictional complications because God forbid if.

town lines and borders can never like work together on these things. Craig resided in the town of Glenville, but the Cambridge Manor complex where he was last seen fell under the jurisdiction of the village of Scotia. And in the crucial early hours, local police departments debated which agency held authority over the case. Like, what is the debate? Like one of you guys go do this one or you two from Scotia go and two from Glenville go. Like, why is there even a debate? Is this going to like result in some sort of.

dropped like case if there's a prosecution or something gets prosecuted for something? Like, why are we even thinking about this? Yeah, those are great questions. I mean, maybe, I guess. I don't know. I mean, my take on it is probably it's more like research resources, like, you know, budgetary concerns, you know, and like just, you know, man hours that are dedicated to this when there are other things going on. But yeah, I don't know specifically in this case. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsor.

The new Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid is the most fuel efficient Crosstrek yet. That means less time filling your tank and more time filling your day. More court time. More ride time. More lake time. More camp time. More go time. The new 2027 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Consumer Reports top rated subcompact SUV. Stop by your local Subaru dealership or visit Subaru.ca to learn more. Consumer Reports is not endorsed products or services. And a thank you to our sponsors. Back to the program.

So Craig's parents repeatedly highlighted these major inconsistencies with the runaway assessment, pointing out that Craig had left his car, his money, his identification, and cell phone behind, items obviously a teenager planning to run away would naturally take with him. And so recognizing the escalating complexity of the case, state police investigator Gloria Coppola of Troop G Major Crimes was brought in to conduct polygraph examinations of individuals close to Craig. And it was at that point that the New York State Police formally took the lead over the entire investigation. Kind of makes me wonder what came up on those polygraphs. I don't have any...

any research on that, but I'm guessing something may be suspicious or I don't know. It's hard to say. Yeah. And just like looking over the research here that's been put together, there must have been a search in the meantime, right? Like there must have been a search before polygraph tests were given. I would think so. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting to me that polygraphs were.

were conducted after the person who disappeared was described by law enforcement as being like kind of high risk. So who would be lying about what? I don't know. It's very interesting. And it's very interesting that the state police, the New York state police formally took over the lead in the investigation. And over the next two decades, 20 years, state troopers and forensic teams have conducted a reinvestigation. So over 70 coordinated physical grid searches covered the dense woods, marshlands and drainage culverts behind Cambridge Manor and along the railway corridors.

State police helicopters equipped with thermal imaging surveyed the region. Dive teams from the state police and boats equipped with a side scan sonar dragged and searched the nearby Mohawk River and adjacent waterways. So now they're doing very intense searches. And this has been over the last two decades. Right. And troopers walked miles of rail line in both directions from the last sighting location, cross-referencing state and regional railway logs from the day of Craig's disappearance. Make sure there were no sightings, I suppose, of him or confirm if there were, where and such.

Federal red flag monitors were also placed on Craig's social security number, and state police maintained continuous checks with credit bureaus, the IRS, and banks. No financial, medical, or legal activity has ever been recorded under his identity since June of 2004. That's not a good sign whatsoever in Craig's story here, unfortunately. And more effort put forth by investigators as they establish a dedicated LEED database, processing and cross-referencing more than 500 individual tips that were submitted by the public. And throughout the history of the case, a few moments generated significant investigative activity, most notably the 2012 Mohawk River jawbone recovery. So this happened in the spring of 2012, where searchers located a human jawbone along the banks of the Mohawk River. And forensic pathologists at the regional medical examiner's office compared the bone against Freer's post-extraction dental records. I believe we did mention that he had his wisdom teeth removed. Forensic analysis formally excluded the jawbone as belonging to Freer, unfortunately. So a little bit of false hope there.

Yeah, absolutely. And then again, in November of 2014, a team of private island surveyors working off Freeman's Bridge Road in Glenville, which is a little less than two miles away from the Cambridge Manor Apartments, they discovered skeletal remains in a concrete drainage ditch. And police secured the site, and the discovery initially sounded like Craig had been found. However, forensic dental analysis at the Albany Medical Center Pathology Lab confirmed that the remains apparently did not match Craig's dental records. And around the 17th anniversary of Craig's disappearance in 2021, state police re-interviewed a former co-worker who reported seeing a young man matching Craig's description sitting in the passenger seat of a car traveling northbound on State Route 50 in Glenville. And that was between June 27th and July 2nd, 2004. And the witness noted that the vehicle paused at a traffic light at Sheffield Road before turning left. However, because the witness could not recall the vehicle's make, model, or color, law enforcement was unable to trace the vehicle or identify the driver. So yeah, frustrating tip right there. A frustrating lead, I guess.

You know, not much you can do with it if it's just like look like somebody familiar there, but I don't remember any other detail. And it's those types of things that have continued in the disappearance of Craig Freer. And his case, of course, remains open. It's still a cold case, missing person investigation, and it's still managed by the New York State Police. Troop G, the major crimes unit, investigators maintain active files across national databases, including NamUs and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. These are the common power databases for any search engine or searchers who are looking for individuals and lead investigators, including.

Gloria Coppola, previously mentioned investigator Gloria Coppola, who applied the polygraph tests, and investigator Kevin Noto have publicly noted that while Craig's initial retreat into the woods was likely a spontaneous attempt to avoid an argument with his father. That makes a lot of sense. And even his little gesture to the kids, his shush gesture to the kids, doesn't seem like that's anything that he was doing in a permanent way. It is a haunting image, but it was probably like, you know, my dad's going to be on my ass if he finds me. That's probably what's going through his head.

The total absence of any digital footprint over 20 years does, however, point towards foul play or death. Yeah, kind of have to agree there. So the Freer family has maintained active advocacy efforts to ensure Craig's case remains in the public eye. Veronica Freer has actually kept Craig's bedroom preserved in the exact condition. He left it in 2004, maintaining hope for answers, of course. And each year around the anniversary of his disappearance, the family hosts Candles for Craig Freer Virtual Vigil, inviting community members to light candles at 7 p.m. and post photos online to maintain awareness.

And Craig's brother, Matthew, expanded his involvement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is a noble thing to do here, moving from a participant to a primary route coordinator and executive organizer for the regional ride for missing children. Through dedicated bike rides along routes such as the Zim-Smith Trail, the family has raised thousands of dollars to fund child safety educators in local capital district schools. So really, really great, unfortunate result of Craig's disappearance is his brother, Matthew, rallying himself and others to be part of something for a good cause. Absolutely. And the family has also funded regional highway billboards and regularly participate in press conferences with law enforcement to solicit any leads from the public. Okay, well, that is basically the story as we have it here. And of course, there's been plenty of internet theories and speculation. Of course, in cases where there are very few answers, you get a lot of sometimes wild theories.

And because Craig vanished during daylight hours near a populated apartment complex without leaving behind physical evidence online, cold case communities have proposed several unverified theories. And of course, these remain speculation. Unplanned vehicle pickup or hitchhiking, this is a prominent theory online, suggests that after entering the woods to evade his father, Craig walked along the railroad corridor to an adjacent roadway or crossway, which there are, looking at the overhead here, plenty of. And this is where he could have accepted a ride from an acquaintance or a stranger, leading to an unexpected fatal encounter. What do you think about that one? Yeah, I think that that's very reasonable. I think that it is just as reasonable as any other ones that don't include anything really like spectacular. You know, there are people out there who are looking to harm other individuals. And I mean, we know stories like this before, only, you know, it's a different scenario, different state, different type of situation where the person is not there. And this always comes up, somebody there who took the opportunity to harm someone and it happens. So it's very plausible for me to think that, you know, especially there's no body, there's no body and no sign of Craig at all. That does suggest that he was in some sort of moving.

vehicle or train or something that transported him far beyond the search perimeter. Yeah, I guess my issue with this theory, though, is that he would have escaped the woods and then accepted a ride from someone who did him harm, I guess, right? There are other versions that start this way, but end with him, you know, working on a new life, basically. But this one is about, this one reminds me of Maura Murray, right? Gets into a car voluntarily from someone who ultimately might have chose to...

do them harm. And in Mora's case, I actually do agree. I believe that that's what happened. In Craig's case, I feel like it seems a little unlikely. Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I was referencing Mora, that it's just a different person, different setting. It does feel a little bit more unlikely though in Craig's case. And I really can't put my finger on it either. Well, he's a young man that's 17. A big young man too, by the way. Yeah, right. Strong and tall and big. Yeah, you're right. Athletic as well, as Mora was.

So another theory here is accidental injury or exposure. This one posits that Craig attempted to navigate the thick vegetation, drainage culverts, or marshy ground along the rail line and suffered a severe injury or accident and succumbed to exposure in an area that was overlooked during the searches. Sure. I don't think that's what happened, but maybe, maybe, right? Because we know that the searches didn't happen immediately. I feel like something would have been there. And I know we say this all the time, and it's really easy to overlook any sort of article of clothing or any sort of personal belonging that was left there from a human after they've been.

decomposing after a period of time but you would think that there would be something they already found someone else's jawbone and they already found someone else's like other skeletal remains so you would have thought you would think that if that was the case then something would have been found right can i just say how how were those skeletal remains not craig like who were they i didn't look in to see if those those were identified but i have to wonder if especially the second one from 2014 found in the drainage ditch like uh you know who that was if it wasn't craig because Kind of seems consistent with this theory that, you know, he really didn't make it out of the vegetation or back to like, you know, I guess civilization, right? Right, exactly. And him being in sort of this drainage area does suggest that maybe he twisted an ankle or, you know, there was an injury or something and he just went under shelter or went into this kind of partially sheltered area just to like sit for a little bit. But you're right. Like when we're going over this, I'm thinking, who are these other people? Because hopefully they are identified or it would be very unfortunate if all the...

silly jurisdictional challenges that come up with the law enforcement departments can get their shit together and identify these other skeletal remains. That would be awesome. Hopefully it wasn't the case where they couldn't apply any resources to figuring this out. I hope not. Right. Really fired up today about law enforcement agencies. I don't know why. We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsor.

And a thank you to our sponsors. Back to the program. So another theory here is this workplace or secret life connection, which I would say just based on Craig sort of pretending to go to work, you know, there's some credence to the idea that he's capable of that. So he hit his job termination for a month and maintained non-overlapping friend groups, which is interesting, maybe not intentional. But some folks speculate he may have been involved in undisclosed personal conflicts or meetings connected to his former job or friends. This is interesting. We spoke about...

the unsolved murder of Craig Lane recently, and he was 17 as well. And we talked about the possibility that his murder was targeted and even considered very similar things to what we're talking about here today with Craig, with this Craig, because it didn't seem like he had any enemies, didn't seem like there was a friend group that was after him or anything like that. So to imagine some kind of targeted attack seems unlikely. It doesn't seem like the personality fits that outcome. Yeah, I agree. And there are two other similar, I guess, kind of similar moments between Craig Lane and Craig Freer, which is the

moment that craig lane tells his father skip that he had something going on and he seemed upset by it that there was something that he wanted to talk about but he was going to try to figure it out on his own that could be as innocent as anything you know or it could be something that actually led to his murder and craig kind of craig freer kind of has that here as well where he just kind of according to what we've seen kind of maybe suddenly but he becomes withdrawn you know maybe something had happened but i you know i'm kind of grasping at straws here i really don't think that he had anything so significant going on that he was going to go out and and have some sort of like clandestine relationship or You know, it just, it doesn't seem to fit because everyone seemed to be very surprised. I'm assuming, you know, his coworkers, the supervisors were probably very surprised to find out that he hadn't told his parents that he hadn't been working there for a month. Yeah, I just, I wish we knew what he was doing with that time. You know, it kind of makes me wonder, and again, this part of the episode is all about speculating these kinds of ideas, but it makes me wonder what he was doing. Was he doing something for money? You know, was he selling drugs? Was he selling, I don't know, stolen items? You know, what exactly was going on here? And I'm just, I'm assuming maybe he was doing something to make money because.

whatever he was doing was in place of making money. Yeah, right. So is he doing something, you know, having to do with illegal dealings? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess regardless, it might not really matter because it didn't seem like he had a cell phone and maybe he did and we didn't know. His parents didn't know. It's very possible. But assuming he didn't, I don't know.

Or maybe if he did, who would he have called, right? Would he have called one of his friends to maybe pick him up or something like that? And again, unless these friends are older, these are people who are just in the beginning stages of having a driver's license or not even having a driver's license at that age. So it seems like his options for escape would be very limited. Right, right. And it kind of goes hand in hand or it kind of goes in parallel lines with a voluntary relocation, which is another one of the theories here. Naturally, some people have theorized that Craig voluntarily walked away to establish. This is such a cliche again at this point. It's to establish a new life under a new identity. But law enforcement authorities considered this scenario very implausible given the total absence of any bank account, employee records, employment records, social security usage since June of 2004. You know, he would have had to apply for another job. He would have had to have accessed some sort of resource monetarily.

I don't know if a 17 year old is able to do that spontaneously. So when I say like this kind of goes in parallel or in connection with the other theory that there was some sort of secret life going on, maybe somehow he was setting those things up for himself. But again, like he's 17, right? Yeah. I mean, again, what was he doing with that time, right? Was he making money? Was this money earned legally? It sounds like no, if there was money that he earned. And then so then would that imply he had a bunch of cash or he had some cash that wasn't accounted for? Obviously, I don't know. Just speculating here. I actually think this is a possibility that he did run away, voluntary relocation, because if he did have some cash.

And was able to get, I don't know, a state away or I don't know, 30, 40 miles away even. Maybe he could have gotten some or continued whatever he was doing to make money or gotten some, you know, under the table job. I mean, you know, at a restaurant or something like that. That's not out of the question. Kind of tell people to call you something different. I don't know. I mean, it's almost like in 2004, it's almost like that romantic period of time where something like this was still possible, you know, because today it's very hard to imagine.

Yeah, exactly. You know, there was no Instagram that could capture your every move. Flock cameras. Yeah. Flock cameras, right. Yeah. Things like that, you know, that exist today that did not exist in 2004. All these ways to track somebody, social media, things like that. They just, they didn't really exist if you didn't, you didn't have a phone and worse, you know, signed up for that stuff. So. Right.

Well, I certainly hope that that's the case. I certainly hope that he did not succumb to the elements. I hope that he didn't get hit by a train or taken by somebody in a car and, you know, horrible things were done to him. I hope that it's a case that he voluntarily disappeared and he's living the life that he wanted to live. And maybe his home situation wasn't as, I don't know, rosy as it's been painted. Maybe he had reasons to leave. Maybe he didn't, you know, maybe he just didn't feel like he was at home there. Yeah. Well, it seemed like he felt a little suffocated, I will say, you know, without passing judgment on their, you know, his parents.

styles of parenting. It just seems like Craig was a little suffocated because he had gotten off the phone with his mom who was angry with him and then walked outside and saw his dad who was also going to be angry with him. So regardless of how good parents they were or not, it seems like they were actually really good parents, but it does seem like Craig felt a little bit of, you know, a control that he wasn't comfortable with. Yeah, definitely. And again, anyone with information regarding Craig Freer's disappearance is urged to contact the New York State Police Troop G at 518-630-1700 or email crimetip at troopers.ny.gov. Thanks a lot for listening. Let us know what you think on YouTube or Spotify, and we will be back next week with another new episode.

The new Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid is the most fuel-efficient Crosstrek yet. That means less time filling your tank and more time filling your day. More court time. More ride time. More lake time. More camp time. More go time. The new 2027 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Consumer Reports top-rated subcompact SUV. Stop by your local Subaru dealership or visit Subaru.ca to learn more. Consumer Reports is not indoors products or services.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Missing?

This episode is 45 minutes long.

When was this Missing episode published?

This episode was published on September 21, 2026.

Is there a transcript available for this episode?

Yes, a full transcript is available for this episode. You can read the complete transcript on the episode page.

Can I download this Missing episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.