Welcome to Navigating Advocacy, the true crime podcast that goes beyond storytelling to ignite change and seek justice.

I'm Melissa and I'm Whitney.

It's true crime enthusiast turn passionate advocate.

We've seen the power of storytelling raise awareness about unsolved crime and bring hope to victims and their families.

We hope to inspire action and promote positive change within the true crime community.

Our definition of action oriented advocacy is doing something more than just talking about the issues.

It's taking concrete steps to address them.

We're here to empower you to also become advocates for change, no matter where or who you are.

We are Navigating Advocacy.

We discuss topics that may be sensitive to listeners.

Discretion is advised.

So August eighteenth, I fly from Tampa into Austin, Texas to meet up with Whitney, so then we can just turn around and drive twelve ish hours to Albuquerque.

It was good times.

We said we were going to work.

We did not work.

We did not work.

It was a long day for Melissa, and I felt really bad because she did.

She traveled literally across the United States in multiple forms of transportation, So we get to Eric's house pretty late that evening.

Eric was our gracious host.

That was like literally better than a full service B and B.

It was better than any hotel we've ever stayed at.

Yeah, that's nice.

We had Like in New Mexico.

You don't get mints on your pillow, you green chili's on your pillow, amazed, which I actually used mine and Melissa's because Mossa couldn't fly with hers.

You didn't fly this week?

Awesome, What did you do?

What did you do?

I made chicken tacos with it my enstapot.

It was super good.

Had to fight my husband off for the leftovers tonight for dinner.

That's amazing.

That's so good.

I'm glad.

Yeah.

I believe in giving green chili.

I believe in feeding people.

It's my love language, and green chili is you know, New Mexican.

New Mexico cuisine is really close to my heart, So I believe in exposing people to it and bragging about it NonStop and constantly eating it.

That's my story.

I also took you to a restaurant, did a very important restaurant special restaurant.

I guess it's not necessarily important, but it's special.

Yeah, it's an old place, it's a hole in the wall, but the food is it's like my grandma made it.

So I'm glad we had to have that, got to have that.

I'm pretty sure someone's grandma is in that kitchen making it.

Lots of love in that food.

Yeah, the soap uppias alone so good.

Yeah, life changing.

You gotta ask.

You gotta ask.

A New Mexican will teach you how to do it.

But that's not why you came to New Mexico.

It wasn't just for the food.

No, it was not just for the food.

We decided a long time ago that we were going to do our an action oriented advocacy case in Albuquerque, one because Eric was there, and two because there is no shortage of cases that need to be covered in New Mexico by any means, specifically Albuquerque.

We put it off for what three or four quarters.

We just ended up going other places and finally decided it was time and why not cram everything into one week.

That's how we like to do things, and we chose Albuquerque, got out there and decided to host an event.

Yeah, we decided like the week before to host an event, so we weren't really super prepared.

I think we planned the entire trip like three weeks before, so it's not like we had been planning this for extended periods of time.

We just didn't know specifically what we were going to do with our particular case.

Tyra's case, it was a little bit difficult because it was an old case, her family wasn't around, a lot of the people that were involved were in no longer with us.

So we wanted an event that was going to make an impact, not just for Tyro's case, but for a lot of the issues that Albuquerque in New Mexico is facing.

So that's when we decided on this Honkin Wave.

Whitney and I had done one before up in Washington, and so we knew the gist of what to do and how to bring it together.

And the three of us just started pushing it out about what maybe five six seven days before the event and had quite a bit of traction.

We made signs to go out, contact a few local groups, contacted media, anyone that really wanted to come out, and it was an overwhelmingly but amazing event.

I think going into it, I really thought if we had ten people ten it would be a successful.

Man, So I have one person I would consider its successful, but I estimated about ten people would make the time on that short of notice to come out.

As we were sitting there, we decided to meet at Civic Plaza, which is this place downtown in Albuquerque, not far from the courthouse, not far from the local police department, and it's just near the convention Center.

It's a good meet up place.

There's parking nearby.

It's a great hub.

Book City halls right there too, so right on the other side of Civic Plaza.

So it's like all of the government for Albuquerque is basically in that two block area.

And if you're going to be loud, why not be loud where someone who can make a change can hear.

That's the whole purpose.

I want to shout out the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice.

They are an amazing support group that has chapters all over the state.

They're a group of grieving family members that are just helping each other and listening to each other, and they do crafts and paint knights and things like that together and it's just a really lovely community.

And I think if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had the turnout that we had.

So I'm grateful for them.

So check them out on Facebook if you are interested in learning more about them.

Yes, I agree.

I think Whitney and I arrived, then you and your mom came to Eric and Chrsaders were the founders.

The co founders were there around that time.

And then just more and more families started showing up.

They were bringing wagons and their posters and they were wearing shirts, and every time a new family would come up, we would I would just start tearing up all over again.

I was shocked at the number of people that made the time to come to this event and that had families that were literally killed within the last couple of weeks or the last couple of years.

Ah, it was just we had one family member there that was days after her daughter was murdered.

Days I just to process grief and how and know that this is what your future looks like until change is made, that you're just gonna have to get out there, continue to make noid over and over until legislation happens or relay start to give a shit.

There's just so many things that need to happen.

It's it's definitely a testament to why my show exists, and there's such a huge need for advocacy in New Mexico.

There's such a huge need for voices to be lifted up and to be brought to the forefront, and for legislators to listen to these families because there are so many of them.

There's just it's endless.

When we were there at Civic Plaza waiting to leave, like there was a couple of waves and the first wave, I was like, okay, this is probably like let's maybe we should start walking, and then before you know it, like more people are coming and more people and they were just coming in like waves.

And that's really how I see what's happening in this state.

Just waves and waves of grief and loss and man, it's heartbreaking, but it's also inspiring.

And the good thing that I've seen is like a lot of those families have continued.

You know, they had another march on September fourth, there's another one coming up on September thirtieth, so they're still doing it and I'm going to try to get to as many of those as I can as well.

But it's incredible to see that momentum continue, that's amazing.

It's so amazing because like it just takes one time of starting something before this trickle effect where they're like, hey, we can do this.

It's not that difficult and it's going to get the word out.

And I'm just so proud of Albuquerque me too.

There was so many families that came up to us that said thank you for putting this together.

And we really didn't do anything.

We made a Facebook event and said hey, meet us here, and everyone else did all like, everyone did equal amount of work.

All we did was picked a time.

So knowing that something so small was so impactful is powerful.

Yeah, And the coolest thing was on the Crusaders group.

I think it was Sally that tagged like one of the reporters at the local news station and said, hey, FYI, this is happening.

Can you have someone there?

And they did.

That's amazing to have that kind of platform where you could just be like, Hi, we're doing something, can you guys show up?

And then they do.

That's incredible.

I'm so amazed by those women we do and shout out to that TV station for actually following through saying yeah, we will be there and then actually showing up actually doing a story over it.

And it wasn't just one story.

They did a digital story.

It was on the actual news.

There was several Yeah.

Yeah, and Melissa, I think you were on there.

I was on there.

I was on there ferminent.

I'm glad I was in the print version and not the TV version.

Yeah, there's a reason why we do podcasting.

There's a few reasons.

Very good events.

Awesome.

Yeah, we have what Eric has been working on in the background for quite a while.

It was announced that weekend or was it right after that?

So I think I got my certification like that weekend or like that Thursday, And I think I told you guys if I remember correctly.

Yeah.

So, yeah, we've been working hard at Angel's Voices Silence No More, which is a new nonprofit, not new, but new.

I've been working on this for probably two years now, and through a sad tale of misplaced trust, I waited for over a year or almost a year to get my nonprofit status from the IRS.

But we moved past that and I went ahead and took care of it and got it done in four weeks, which is pretty cool and mildly infuriating at the same time.

But yeah, Angel's Voices started off as a dream that my mom and I had as we were talking about Jacob's case and talking about how we didn't want anybody to anybody else to ever feel like we felt when Jacob was murdered.

We didn't want them to feel alone.

We wanted them to know that there was hope and that there were people who would listen to them.

My mom actually named the organization.

We went back and forth and that's where we ended up with Angel's Voices Silenced No More.

I think it's she now is like second guessing the name, but I think it's really perfect because there are moments when you do feel like your loved one's voice has been silenced.

You feel like their voice has been taken from them, and it has literally but also in a figurative manner, right like especially with Jacob's case, because there was no coverage until thirty plus years after he had already been murdered.

The mission of Angels Voices Silence No More is to empower families by providing them with the necessary resources and referrals to advocate for their missing or murdered loved ones.

We believe in taking a comprehensive approach to support, encompassing a wide range of services including paying for billboards, DNA testing, private investigations, funeral expenses, therapy, and pretty much anything that a family might need in their quests for justice and answers related to their loved ones.

Our vision is starts off with a very simple sentence, there's always We envision New Mexico as a place where justice is not just a concept, but a reality for every victim and their families.

I'm getting emotional because it's really amazing to have this all starting to happen in real life because it started as a dream.

Our organization is committed to creating a victim focused support network that serves as a beacon of hope and resilience.

In this vision, families fighting for justice find themselves surrounded by a compassionate community that understands their pain and stands by their side.

It's just perfect, and I'm so glad that it's finally off the ground.

I know it's been weighing heavily on you and the very short but feels like forever time that I've known you.

That was like just yesterday, like ninety three years ago.

At the same time agreed, Yeah, it really was a long time ago.

I don't know why it feels like it was so long.

Yeah, it's amazing to be here at this point where we're actively raising money, we getting out there on social media talking about it like I am now with you're going to We're a direct to vendor granting organization.

We try to make sure that there's no challenges with honesty or people taking advantage of the situation to say that anybody would, but we want to make sure that those buffers are in place so that we can ensure the donors that their money is going where we say it's going.

Sure, so we're gonna be very strict about that.

We're going to require an invoice, and we'll be paying directly to vendors funeral homes, therapy providers, never resources.

We'll be leveraging the money likely in that manner.

So I'm excited.

I think that we have the ability to do a lot of good in this community, and I think that it's going to be really cool to see what happens over the next like five years with us.

Mistlie, I believe in what you're doing.

I think that there's a lot of good that can come from this.

I know that there's a need because you needed it, your family needed it.

There's millions of others out there that need it.

So my willingness to help is just that the next thing that we we have been working on.

It was originally Eric's dream that he again, so he's moved from this nonprofit organization that he's wanted to build.

He's building it.

Now.

What's the next thing that we can build and that's creating a conference that takes what his nonprofit is doing, what his podcast is doing, what our podcast is doing, and amplifies it to the what one hundredth degree, and it's going to be cuge, amazing.

It's definitely something that was needed.

Whitney and I have had many conversations when a loved one good's missing, or it's murdered, what happens next?

What does the family need to know?

What did they do?

What resources are out there?

And every state it's different.

Obviously, Let's just take a young single mom that her husband died, what next?

And so many people don't know what to do.

Obviously, before you're in this true crime space, I had no clue what was needed that type of thing and I think that this conference is going to shed a light on all of these things.

This is going to open up so many people's eyes and open up doors, and so that people like you, Eric don't feel alone like your mom, having no idea which way to turn, who to turn too, who to trust, because there are so many people out there that might be spreading misinformation and doing things for their own profit versus helping out these families.

It's something none of us prepare for.

You don't know if someone you love will go missing or happen to be a victim.

And when we sat down to build this, where do you start with that?

Obviously got to figure out what your mission is.

You got to figure out what your vision is, what do we want, what do we expect from this conference?

What sort of information are we going to be sharing.

And we kept coming back to building this community because, as the saying goes, it takes a village.

One person cannot do this on their own.

So we created the vision that we want to build a community where families of the missing and murdered find unwavering support and strength within a united and compassionate environment.

So we want people to feel safe, We want them to be able to share their stories.

We want people to listen to their stories and come up with creative ways to keep their loved ones in the forefront of investigators' minds, in front of the media, because we all know that media roles in this industry of whether or not something's going to actually be done.

When you have that pressure of the media on law enforcement, they're more willing to do something could definitely make or break a case, that's for sure.

So where it started, we are still very much in the planning stages.

We know that it will not be an active conference until twenty twenty five.

We don't have this set date yet, but look for at spring twenty twenty five.

We are actively fundraising.

We will be doing a lot of incentive based ticket sells.

So if this is something you're interested in doing or donating to and you want to show up and you're ready to put it on your calendar for twenty twenty five, you have the opportunity to buy your ticket now and be prepared to go in twenty twenty five.

And being on the ground level, you're going to get some extra things which aren't all set in stone yet, but we'll be there soon.

There's also space for if you have a specific skill, if you are a private investigator, if you are an expert, I don't know, a facial reconstructive artist, if you're an anthropologist, if you are a scientist, or if you have a skill that you think could be utilized in the true crime industry that maybe isn't something commonly thought of.

Let us know, all right, so please visit BW dot avcon dot com for further details.

We'll also have some links to donations and ticket sales on that site as well.

You can also send us an email if you have questions about the event.