Bob Wykel: Killed for His Diamond Ring

Who Was Bob Wykel?

Bob Wykel was an older gentleman living in Washington State. He was known for his kind demeanor and gentlemanly ways.

Bob wore a diamond ring and a gold necklace, and those who met him described him as an "incredible gentleman" who was always in a good mood.

Bob was the kind of person who saw the best in people—a trait that would ultimately cost him his life.

The Friendship with Myron

Bob befriended a man named Myron, and the two seemed to get along well.

On February 23rd, Bob and Myron went on a trip together to look at a Thunderbird in Lakewood, Washington. They stopped at the home of Myron's sister, Robin, who lived at a place called Mother Nature's Acres, a 140-acre resort owned by Myron's family in Thurston County.

Robin met Bob that day and was impressed by him. She said Bob was casually dressed but wore a diamond ring and a gold necklace. She described him as being in a good mood and getting along well with Myron. The three of them had coffee together at Robin's house before Bob and Myron continued on their trip.

But Bob never made it home.

The Investigation

When Bob disappeared, investigators began looking into his last known whereabouts.

They discovered that on February 20th, there had been a phone call made from Bob's apartment to a phone number belonging to Myron's stepfather at Mother Nature's Acres.

This was the same day that Myron claimed he had been at Bob's apartment for two hours.

Detectives became suspicious.

Detective Tripp went to Mother Nature's Acres to investigate. The property was massive—140 acres, mostly undeveloped, with just a few dirt roads. It included an 11-acre spring-fed lake that was said to be so deep it had no bottom.

As the investigation continued, detectives uncovered evidence that Myron had killed Bob and stolen his diamond ring.

The Diamond Ring

Myron had tried to sell Bob's diamond ring to family members for cash.

His Aunt Nell and her daughter Leslie both saw the diamond and were suspicious of where Myron had gotten it, knowing he had no source of income. Myron told them different stories about how he acquired the ring, but they didn't believe him.

Eventually, Aunt Nell bought the diamond from Myron for $2,000. When detectives learned about the ring, they enlisted the help of Bob's family to determine whether it had belonged to Bob.

It had.

Justice for Bob

Myron was arrested and charged with Bob Wykel's murder.

Bob Wykel was a kind, trusting man who saw the best in people. He befriended Myron, never suspecting that Myron would betray him in the most horrific way.

Bob Wykel deserved better. He deserved to live a long, peaceful life. His story is a reminder that evil can hide behind a friendly face—and that we must never forget the victims of senseless violence.

Bob Wykel

[00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast. A True Crime Podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi Mandy. How are you? I am doing well. How are you? I'm doing well as well. Amazing. We are back with kids in school some of this week. Yes. Back with kids in school finally.

Mm-hmm. My kids, I had. At least one child home every day, uh, this week. So my, both of them, well, I guess that's not true. Both of them went back to school today. It's Thursday, but oh my gosh, yes, we. Got some kind of bug like at the [00:01:00] end of Thanksgiving break. Of course, like after they've already been home for what feels like a hundred days, right.

And they're supposed to be returning to school like the next day. They're like, we don't feel good. So Sure you don't. So, uh, yeah. So they were actually legitimately sick. I don't know, there's something weird going around right now. It's not like too, too serious. But I've known a few people who have said they just haven't been feeling quite.

Up to par, not a hundred percent. So, okay. Yeah. So good luck if you, uh, encounter that. Yeah, seriously. Nothing is worse than kids getting sick immediately after a break. It's just like an insulting thing almost. Honestly. Like, you couldn't have gotten this before. Really? Yeah. My daughter's done that like over Christmas.

It feels like every, maybe it's just that time of the year. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I mean, it actually think of it more that mean it actually. Yeah. And it actually is. That time of year to get sick. So I just get frustrated because I'm like, you've been home all week doing basically nothing. Like where did you, how did you pick something up?

You know, you, I always am not surprised [00:02:00] if they go to school and, and bring something home. Sure. But when you're just like sitting in your room playing video games, I don't understand how you got sick. My aunt used to think that computer viruses like were actually. There. There you go. Someone said that she had a computer virus and she held her mouth and stepped away.

And I was like, that's not what that means at all. You're okay. Yeah. Um, so no computer viruses, no regular viruses, but Mandy, we have relaunched our Patreon, which we are so excited about. So about, yes. Lots of cool things going on. We are gonna be busy, busy ladies, and hope you guys will be busy listening.

This week we have JonBenet Ramsey, part two. The Netflix documentary, it will be on both Patreon as well as Apple Podcast subscriptions. You'll see on Apple podcast subscriptions, it says subscriber only, and you can do that. It's $5 a month. We'll have three bonus episodes there every month, and we also have on December 16th a bonus chat episode coming up over on [00:03:00] Patreon.

If you wanna join that information, we'll be in the show notes and we'll talk a little more about it at the end of the show. Perfect. So we'll get right into the episode that we have for this week. Bob Weel was someone who really had a way of lighting up a room at 65 years old. He didn't just act younger than his age, but he actually lived it.

He had this energy and spirit that matched those who were really decades younger than him, and he was. The kind of guy that people described as being jolly, which is, I always love when people are described that way. I feel like that's a very specific, you really un, you can really get a picture of what someone is like when they use the word Jolly.

Bob was that type of person that everyone just wanted to be around. He would have engaging conversations with anybody, even a stranger, and his personality made him a favorite among those who knew him. Bob was originally from Chicago, but by 1996 he was living in King County, Washington. He worked for [00:04:00] many years as a sheet metal worker, but by this time he was enjoying retirement For him, that did not mean that he was slowing down and taking it easy.

In fact, Bob continued to pour his energy into his passion for restoring classic cars, which that is such a big hobby. I feel like there's so much involved in that. Um, and to be in retirement doing that, I am very, very impressed. My dad actually does that. He ha wow. Well, he has one. Yeah, he has a 1954, which is the year he was born.

Um, Ford, I think. Ford truck. He, it's driving my mom crazy, but he's been working on it for years and years and she's like, and you still can't drive it around. But it's not about that. It's not about that. Tell her that because she is holding onto it. But it is a really cool hobby and it's neat to see the different stages and stuff.

But it sounds like Bob was actually very good at this and got very far. Yes, he did. Um, not only did this hobby give Bob something to do with his days, but it also [00:05:00] padded his retirement income because he was actually really, how can you say? Turning and burning these vehicles. He was getting them turning and burning.

He was getting them, restoring them, and then selling them and making a lot of money doing this. But he was really good at it. He was very meticulous about the cars, and he always paid for every one of them. He bought in cash. His personal pride and joy, it was a Mercedes that he had restored himself.

Outside of that, Bob loved spending time outdoors. He loved to go hunting and fishing, and he would go on frequent trips just for fun. Bob's personal life was just as exciting as his retirement adventures. He had once been married to a woman named Joan, and although they had divorced, they remained close friends and talked on the phone often after their divorce.

Bob even kept the diamond ring. Joan gave him. He wore it every day. Even when he was working on these cars, they were both loving parents to their two kids, Rebecca and Jack, and involved grandparents to Rebecca's kids. [00:06:00] Bob was a family man who had a strong bond with his loved ones and always found time for them despite his very busy schedule.

And boy was his schedule busy. Bob's social calendar was full of activity and things to do. He was actually a regular at a McDonald's nearby where he would meet up with a group of his retired friends for breakfast and just to chat. I see that often, like if you're in McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, anything like this, there'll be like a group of.

Retirees. Yes. Kind of hanging together and you would see them all the time. That actually reminds me, when I worked at Publix, we always had people first thing in the morning that would come get coffee, stand around for a few minutes, then go about their day, but it was like part of their schedule. Yeah. So he also participated in a weekly poker night that had moved between his neighbor's homes over the years.

Life was really good for Bob and he was very much looking forward to the future. His granddaughter was getting married soon and he was actually planning to create an ice sculpture for her wedding. Whoa. Which is so cool. I know. I'm like, wait out of a car? I don't [00:07:00] understand. How are you so talented? And he also had plans to visit his son in Chicago the next spring.

He had also been in contact romantically with a woman in New York who he had plans to visit while on a trip to look at a car on the East coast. In February of 1996, things took a strange and troubling turn when friends noticed a disruption in Bob's routine. It was either on the 21st or the 22nd of that month that Bob went to his weekly poker game, as he always did, and he shared some exciting news.

He told his poker friends that he was planning to go look at a vintage Thunderbird. It was either a 1956 or 57 model, and he was going to do that the very next morning. Bob had been so excited about the car and he had been talking about it for weeks. He actually had already put down $8,000 deposit and he took out $5,000 in cash to seal the deal.

But this arrangement had just been dragging on and on, and Bob was starting to get impatient [00:08:00] about it, and he told his friends that if the deal didn't happen the next day, he was going to demand his deposit back. But he did still seem optimistic and excited that this Thunderbird would finally be his after weeks of getting the runaround about it.

Bob explained to his friends that the middleman who was facilitating this deal was someone he knew from his group of McDonald's breakfast friends, but he didn't say this person's name. He did say that the Thunderbird he was going to see belonged to a soldier who had been transferred from Fort Lewis to California, and a friend was actually handling the sale.

But after that poker game, Bob was never seen again. Alarm bells went off when Bob didn't show up to the next poker night, and he didn't call his friends either. Considering how social and dependable Bob was, it was immediately concerning that he had suddenly vanished without a trace. Everyone who knew Bob was puzzled by his disappearance.

The first person to notice that Bob was missing was his [00:09:00] neighbor and poker buddy John. When Bob stopped showing up to poker night, he knew something was amiss because Bob was in close contact with his friends, and he would always tell them if he was planning to be outta town. Oftentimes, he would even make arrangements to park his beloved Mercedes in John's fenced yard to keep it safe.

But this time there had been no word from Bob, so John decided to go over to check on him. Instead of finding Bob at home, John found a pile of mail building up on his doorstep. This was yet another sign that something was wrong anytime. Bob left town. He always asked a neighbor to pick up his mail for him.

At this point, John tried to get in touch with Bob's landlord named. Kim, but she actually had gone on a business trip to Malaysia and wasn't due back until March 4th. So John waited for her to return to the States, and as soon as she got back, he went with her to Bob's apartment to look around. Inside Bob's apartment was an eerie scene.

There were dishes piled in the sink and [00:10:00] food rotting in the kitchen, and his coffee pot actually still had coffee in it. Bob's bed was left unmade, and it appeared that he had just stepped out for a moment and never returned. Even his clothes, his toiletries and suitcases were all there. It didn't look like a scene of someone who planned to be gone for an extended period of time.

One thing John noticed in Bob's apartment was an Autotrader magazine that was flipped open to a page with an ad for a Thunderbird. The same car Bob had been talking about purchasing Bob's answering machine was also full of messages. Many from his family members who sounded increasingly worried with each call.

John went to the police with the information he had, but unfortunately they said they couldn't file a missing person's report because as we've heard in many cases, they said that Bob was an adult and he could go missing if he wanted to. So John was left with no other avenue, but to just keep checking on Bob's apartment and sorting through his mail, hoping to find any clues.

[00:11:00] Then on March 8th, Bob's prized, Mercedes was found abandoned at a park and ride with his empty wallet inside. So something about Bob is that he only ever used cash for everything and he carried his cash separately, but there was no cash found in the car and the keys were also missing. So John instantly knew that Bob would absolutely never leave his precious Mercedes at just some random park and ride lot.

The car ended up getting towed on March 11th and a short time later, John found the notice about the tow in Bob's mail and he immediately informed the police about this new lead. And this time they actually jumped into action and filed a missing persons report and they assigned Detective Earl trip to the case.

John is a good friend. He's like, yes, okay. You won't file a missing person's report. I'm gonna keep looking. We're gonna figure this out. Right. That's amazing. Detective Trip started piecing together Bob's life in the days leading up to his disappearance by interviewing his ex-wife and his two kids [00:12:00] who both described their dad as being meticulous, especially when it came to his cars.

His daughter, Rebecca, was adamant that her dad would not have left the Mercedes in a random lot, and his son Jack agreed. If Bob had to park his car anywhere, he would've brought it to John's yard, as he always did. Upon learning that her dad was missing, Rebecca flew into town to help with the investigation.

Detective Trip took her to Bob's apartment to look around, and the scene she saw only confirmed her worst fears. There was no sign that her dad planned to go anywhere. His passport, hunting, rifles, and fishing gear were also all still there. And the suitcase that he always used when he would go and visit Rebecca was there too.

Their next move was to focus on Bob's bank records and Detective Trip Found out that Bob withdrew $5,200 on February 12th, most likely with the intention of buying the Thunderbird, but there was still over $48,000 in his account that had been untouched since he [00:13:00] went missing. Detective Trip tried looking at the Autotrader magazine in Bob's apartment for a clue, and he even contacted the person from the Thunderbird ad, but there was no evidence that Bob had ever contacted that person, which made sense because Bob had told his friends that there was actually a middleman involved.

Not that he found this car in Autotrader, but none of Bob's poker friends seem to know who this middleman could beat. Bob's friends and family distributed hundreds of flyers as he searched for answers. They put a lot of flyers in the area of the park and ride where the Mercedes was abandoned. Bob's daughter, Rebecca spoke to the media and reiterated that her dad would not have left like this.

He wouldn't have left his Mercedes there, and he wouldn't have not called his family by now. Meanwhile, detective Trip was developing a theory that Bob, who had been planning to buy a car, withdrew a significant amount of cash from the bank. And then he disappeared. His car turned up, abandoned with his wallet emptied.

All signs pointed to the fact that [00:14:00] something had gone terribly wrong, and we have more to get into after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. Before the break, we were getting into the story of the disappearance of a 65-year-old man named Bob Weel, who had gone missing after telling his friends that he was going to be traveling out of town to look at a classic car that he was interested in purchasing.

But Bob was never seen again, and he was reported missing by his friend and neighbor. John. On March 26th, the manager of Bob's apartment building, this is Kim, and she's the one who went into Bob's apartment with the neighbor, got a knock on her door. When she answered it, she was met with a man who said that his name was Lynn.

And spoiler alert. It wasn't. Hmm. He claimed to be a friend of Bob's who had been trying to get in touch with him, and so Kim told this Lynn person about the news that Bob had actually been missing. Then the man told her that he was part of the McDonald's breakfast group with. Bob and he said, Bob had mentioned having plans to [00:15:00] travel to Nevada, but this actually set off alarm bells in Kim's mind because at this point Bob's been missing for several days, and she's already spoken to all of Bob's other neighbors and some of his friends herself.

And not one single person had mentioned Bob taking a trip except for this mysterious person who has just showed up on her doorstep. At some point, this Lynn guy asked if there was a way to get in touch with Bob's family. So Kim told him how he could reach Rebecca and that would be Bob's daughter. Later, Rebecca did get a call from this man.

He introduced himself as Mike Lynn, and he said he was a close friend of her father's. Rebecca was puzzled because she had never heard of this man before, but he said he hadn't seen Bob since February 20th, though he reassured Rebecca that Bob would be back soon. He suggested that Bob may have taken a trip to either California, Nevada, or Argentina, which sounds kind of like a crazy destination, right?

Just to go on a whim. But it [00:16:00] actually did make some sense because Bob lived in Argentina with his ex-wife, Joan, and he always talked about going back. But of course. Rebecca knew that if her dad was planning a trip, especially one outta the country, he would've informed her of this. Right? Plus, there's this strange fact that nobody else has mentioned anything about Bob traveling except this guy.

So Rebecca didn't trust anything that he was saying, and then things got real weird when Mike Lynn asked if he could meet Rebecca, so she. I guess you could say felt the bad vibes from this and said no, and told him that he could speak with Detective Tripp if he had anything else that he needed to say.

Good. So interestingly enough, Mike did call the detective. He told him the same story about how he was Bob's good friend, but he hadn't seen him since February 20th, at which time he spent two hours in Bob's apartment, but now he had just learned that Bob was missing. Mike told Detective [00:17:00] Trip that Bob said he was planning to go to an auction and then to Susanville, California to look at a car, which supposedly belonged to a woman named Lynn.

Who got it after a divorce. He also said that Bob was trying to buy an older Thunderbird, but was getting frustrated and was about to wash his hands of it. I just wanna say the one thing I find interesting is that this guy has no creativity. When he comes up with fake names, how is he telling people that his name is Lynn?

And then he's also saying, and the person he that Bob's getting the car from is Lynn. It's like he didn't even put any thought into, uh, making the story sound believable. No, not at all. After he got off the phone with Detective Tripp, this guy Mike, again, not his real name, but police don't know that yet.

Makes a second call to Bob's daughter, Rebecca, and informs her that he had spoken to the detective and that he offered her advice on things she could do to help look for her father. When Detective Trip dug deeper, he learned that Mike was someone who had sort of inserted himself into [00:18:00] Bob's social circle at McDonald's, but the other men in the group didn't like him.

One of the men said that Mike was a bad guy and that he was someone shady who Bob had been negotiating over a Thunderbird with. He said that after Bob vanished, Mike disappeared too. So based on this new information, detective Trip figured out that Mike was actually the middleman for this Thunderbird sale that he had been looking for.

The detective went back and listened to the messages on Bob's machine and found that there were actually three messages from Mike on there. In the first message, Mike mentioned that he hadn't spoken to Bob in over a week and referred to Bob being on a trip. The second message was similar, but this time Mike asked Bob to call him.

In the third message, Mike said something that basically was that he received a call back from Bob. Guess like he was returning the call. But of course this is strange to Detective Tripp because Mike told him he had been trying to get in touch with Bob for weeks. He never said anything about Bob actually reaching out to him.[00:19:00] 

Eventually the police figured out that Mike Lin was actually a man with many aliases, but his real name was Myron Clark Wynn. Unlike Bob's other friends, Myron was far from being at retirement age. He was actually just 35 years old at the time of Bob's disappearance. Myron had prior DUI convictions and charges for driving with a suspended license.

He had a girlfriend named Lynn who paid for everything because Myron did not have a job. Next, detective Tripp looked at Bob's phone records and found that on February 20th at 3:16 PM a call was made from Bob's apartment to a phone number that they found belonged to Myron's stepfather. And this was at a place called Mother Nature's Acres in Thurston County, Washington.

So remember Myron already told the police that February 20th was the day he was at Bob's apartment for two hours. So that's. Convenient and interesting that that's the same day that this phone call is made. [00:20:00] So Detective Tripp went to Mother Nature's Acres, which is 140 acre resort owned by Myron's family.

At that time, this resort included an 11 acre Springed lake that was said to be so deep that it had no bottom. Which, no thank you. That sounds scary. Absolutely not. Um, and most of this property was undeveloped and there were just a few dirt roads to get around it. Myron's sister Robin, lived on the property and spoke with detective Trip.

She said that on the morning of February 23rd, she got a call from her brother saying he was going to be stopping by with a friend on their way to look at a Thunderbird in Lakewood. Robin said that Myron showed up in a Mercedes that was driven by what she described as a younger looking older man, and she said that he was an incredible gentleman.

Robin said this older man was casually dressed, but he wore a diamond ring and a gold necklace. She said that he was in a good mood and he seemed to be getting along well with Myron and that [00:21:00] they were having a nice time. The three of them all had coffee together at Robin's house, and then Myron showed the man around the property.

Robin said she's pretty sure she saw her brother and this older man leave together, but her memory of that day was a bit scattered, so she couldn't say for sure 100%. She did say she thought they left around two or three in the afternoon supposedly to go look at this vehicle at some lot that was on South Taco away, and she said that she knew that the man planned to pay for this car in cash.

Others who stayed at the resort confirmed seeing Myron and the older man there around this time and soon Detective Trip was able to confirm that the older man everyone saw was in fact Bob Wyle. So now Mother Nature's Acres was the new official last place that Bob was seen alive. Since Myron was the last person to see Bob, he obviously became a person of interest.

Also, of course, he's randomly calling people, giving new names, different names to people. Like [00:22:00] there's a few reasons why this guy would be a person of interest. So authorities tried to set up a polygraph, but Myron was uncooperative. They tried to match fingerprints from their Mercedes and from Bob's apartment to Myron, but they weren't able to match them to anyone.

However, it's important to note that the police. Didn't have any known prints for Bob for comparison purposes, so the prints they found in his car, in his apartment could have actually been his, and Myron could have easily wiped things down to clear his own prints or could have worn gloves In a frustrating turn of events.

In 1997, detective trip retired and Bob's case was inactivated and wouldn't be opened again until 1999 when new investigators took over. At that time, two detectives were assigned to the case. John Holland and Sue Peters on July 23rd, detective Holland interviewed Myron's, now former girlfriend Lynn, who told him that in late February of 1996, she noticed that Myron suddenly had a large diamond that was mounted in a pendant, [00:23:00] but it had no chain.

He gave it to Lynn, who put it on a chain that she already had. Myron told her that he found the diamond at the Burien Park and Ride. Guess what? It's the same place that Bob's car was abandoned. Hmm. Lynn said that she showed this diamond to her mom and sister sometime in mid to late February when they were all together celebrating their birthdays.

She said that usually they would get together the Sunday after Lynn's sister's birthday, which that year would've been February 25th, and that would be just two days after Bob and his diamond ring went missing. Lynn said that she eventually asked Myron to move out and he demanded that she return the diamond and also made her use her credit card to get a $5,000 cash advance for him.

She complied with these two demands just to get rid of him pretty much is what she said. And of course, he did not ever repay her. After hearing about this, the investigators thought the diamond could end up being a key piece of evidence in the case. [00:24:00] So they went back to Myron's sister Robin and asked her a few more questions.

Robin said Myron came to stay with her for a couple weeks after Lynn kicked him to the curb. He had a substantial amount of money at the time, which Robin noticed and thought was strange because she knew that her brother didn't have a job and that he had just been broken up with by the person who was paying for everything.

A few weeks later, Robin and her husband put Myron on a train to Texas, which I can't imagine why they wanted to, um, send him along, you know, on his way. She said at some point after that she actually went down to Texas herself for a family reunion and she saw her aunt ne with a diamond that Myron apparently sold to her.

Myron had stayed with their aunt for a period of time after he went to Texas. Investigators went to speak to Aunt Nell and she said Myron had attempted to sell her a diamond in 1997, but she was concerned about where he got it in the first place since She also knew that he didn't have any source of income.[00:25:00] 

But he explained to her that he had gotten this diamond from a friend who inherited it and he was trying to sell it for $1,500, but. Aunt Nell didn't buy this at first. She said that her nephew really was kind of the scammer hustler type, so she was leery and passed on the opportunity to buy this diamond.

Smart Nell's daughter also saw the diamond and described it as being in a setting for a necklace with no chain. But Myron told her a different story and that was that he bought it from a friend at work for $2,500. He asked her to sell it for him and said he hoped. To get what he paid for it. Leslie had the same reservations that her mom did and felt that Myron was a scammer who didn't always operate on the straight and narrow and would do anything to get money.

Leslie ended up taking the diamond to a jeweler and was told that it was actually an old European cut that was worth three to $5,000 when Myron later moved out of the house. Leslie assumed he still [00:26:00] had the diamond, but Aunt Nell admitted that she did eventually buy the diamond from him for $2,000. She still had it and she turned it over to the detectives.

Now they believed they had Bob's Diamond and so they enlisted the help of Bob's dad or Rebecca to determine whether the diamond that Myron had sold to his aunt had come from Bob Steinman ring. Rebecca had seen this ring many times because like we said before, her dad was. Always wearing it, and she said that the diamond even had nicks in it with grease embedded from when Bob wore it while working on cars.

Since there was no closeup photo of Bob's ring, Rebecca worked with a gemologist and a goldsmith to try and come up with a detailed description and drawing of the ring. This blew my mind. This whole thing blew my mind. I already thought, I already think it's amazing that they're able to make sketches of peoples, you know, based on interviewing someone, but.

To make a an accurate enough. Description and sketch of a ring that you [00:27:00] don't have any photo of and you've never actually seen before, and you're only going off of what this one person is saying is wild. I can't believe that we can do that. No, I totally agree with you. And this was like early two thousands.

This was not, you know. Now when everything's like ai, right? Give me a diamond and Right. Show me you know all the details. So Rebecca said she had been told before that the diamond was either a ruby cut or an old European cut, and that the stone was round and there was a space between the stone and the bottom of the setting.

Eventually the gemologist determined that the diamond. Was an old European cut with a diameter of seven millimeters, which was roughly equivalent to 1.25 carats. A different gemologist looked at the diamond that Nell gave to the police and determined that it was in fact an old European cut diamond weighing 1.28 carats.

That's wild. It's so close. It really is just the memory, but truly this ring had to be something because. Everyone noticed that about him when he wore it, [00:28:00] how often he was wearing it. I met a nice man who had a diamond ring, right? Like it was part of him, you know? And so this gemologist noted Nixon abrasions on the diamond and small chips around the outside diameter.

He estimated that the diamond was worth a market value of $5,000, which would be closer to $10,000 today. This second Gemologist looked at the recreation that Rebecca worked on and said that it was remarkably similar to, if not the same stone that he had examined, but he said he needed a microscope to be sure.

On March 8th, 2000, the two detectives working the case met with Myron in Honey Grove, Texas. Myron told them he knew Bob had a fake Rolex and one or two rings that both had diamonds in them and a gold bracelet. When they asked if he ever drove Bob's Mercedes, Myron said, well. Not really driven it. He was talking about it one day and was like, yeah, get in.

So I sat in it, but never drove it. That sounds like a kid. [00:29:00] Yeah. Coming up with like, right. Did you eat this? No, I looked at it. I saw it in the fridge. Right. But I did take it out, but that's it. Right, right. But then he ended up saying that he actually couldn't remember if he drove it or not. So they confronted him about his last contact with Bob, which Myron said was at McDonald's for breakfast.

But that was a lie because investigators already knew that his last contact with Bob was actually at Mother Nature's Acres, which his sister Robin had confirmed. So once Myron heard that, the police already knew that, you know. He was at the resort. He changed his story and he said that actually Bob wanted to go see a Thunderbird in Roy Washington.

So Bob came and picked him up around nine or 10 o'clock that morning and they drove to Lakewood. He said that Bob tried to get in touch with the person who was selling the car, but they didn't answer the phone. So the two of them ended up just going to visit Robin to kill some time. Myron said he couldn't remember if Bob was driving his Mercedes.

Later, [00:30:00] Bob tried to call about the Thunderbird again, but still couldn't get ahold of anyone. So they headed home and Bob dropped Myron off sometime between two and 5:00 PM they asked Myron if he'd ever been to the park and ride with Bob and he said no at first. But then when the police told them that they might actually have some footage of him from that lot that showed Bob dropping him off there, he changed his tune and said, Bob may have dropped him off there one time.

But. There was actually no video that showed Myron at the law. The police were just using this as a ruse to see if he would admit to anything, and although he didn't really admit to anything, I think just the fact that he's changing his story based on things they're telling him right. Obviously doesn't look really, um, good.

Myron told them that the last time he saw Bob was at a McDonald's two days later. Investigators told Myron that his Aunt Nel had turned over. The diamond they believed was Bob's, but of course Myron had an explanation for that. He said [00:31:00] he found the diamond at a bus stop in Burien at the park and ride in June of 1996, which Mandy convenient.

What a lucky guy. He claimed. He's just standing in the lot smoking a cigarette. When he looks down and saw the diamond and puts it in his pocket. I mean, this is a lot though for someone who says they don't know if they've ever even been to this lot. True. I wasn't even thinking that. Right. So not only I would remember the place I found a diamond for sure.

If I found a diamond, I would know everything about it. Later, he tells his girlfriend Lynn about it, and said that about 10 days later he had it appraised at somewhere between three and 5,000, and he was told that it was an old European cut. He said he ended up putting the diamond in a pendant and gave it to Lynn, but when the relationship ended, he took it back and he sold it to his aunt.

Myron was asked to take a polygraph and he said he would, but he said he wanted to consult with his lawyer first, so they made arrangements for the polygraph the next morning. But when detectives [00:32:00] arrived to pick him up at his sister's house in Honey Grove, Myron was gone. So detectives Holland and Peters returned to Washington empty handed.

They met with Lanigan and she was able to identify the diamond as being the same one that Myron gave her, and then of course, took back. She said that he told her he found it at a bus stop, but that she never went with him to have it appraised. And Myron never actually mentioned an appraisal to her. In September of 2003, the King County Medical Examiner declared Bob deceased.

As the investigation continued on June 3rd, 2004, the detectives returned to Texas and were able to track Myron down. This time they told him that Bob CNA was found on the diamond that he supposedly found on the ground at the park and ride this. It's also not true. It's just another ruse, but he falls for it.

Once again, he also has an explanation for what happened this time. He said he finds this diamond. He actually shows [00:33:00] Bob the Diamond. Of course he did, and that's probably how, yeah, my gosh. Like I feel like the diamond being the center of this story, it would come up so many times. Like you would, you would've said this in the beginning, like, I found the diamond for sure.

Oh, I showed it to Bob. Anything, but he says, of course you know, Mandy, this is just one big coincidence. Sounds like it. Yeah. So Myron claimed he didn't know how much money Bob had on him, but he said he would imagine it was enough to buy a car. He denied any involvement in Bob's death and said he would consult with an attorney about the polygraph.

A few hours later, he said that he talked with a lawyer and was advised to not take the polygraph. So the officers asked him, you know, what's the name of your attorney? He refused to provide it, and he said. Does it matter? I guess not. So the conversation ended there and detectives never made contact with Myron again, and we still have more to get into after One last break to hear word from this week's sponsors Before the break, we have been getting [00:34:00] into the mysterious disappearance of 65-year-old Bob Wyle, who was last seen with.

30 5-year-old Myron Wynn, and they were allegedly going to look at a classic Thunderbird that Bob was looking to purchase and restore. Through the course of the investigation, the police have learned that this guy, Myron, has a little bit of a sketchy past, and as they continue to investigate, they found out that he also had this very special way of getting things.

He wanted the easy way. Since his girlfriend Lynn had been supporting him, Myron really didn't need much and he barely even had to work. When he needed a little cash, all he would do was run a scam, and it seemed to work out pretty well for him. So what he would do was he would offer to serve as a middleman to obtain goods or services, and then he would take money up front, failed to deliver of course, and then just offer up endless excuses until the helpless victim finally gave up asking for their money to be returned.

This con [00:35:00] had worked on a number of people already, and I hate to say it would absolutely work on me. I would only. I mean, I, it depends on how much money it was, but I am probably not gonna take you to court over a thousand dollars deposit. I mean, I might be very angry, but like, you know, you don't have a lot of recourse if it's a small amount of money.

Oh, yeah. So I can totally see why people would eventually just be like. Whatever, it's not even worth the trouble. And so this is what, this is what he was counting on, and unfortunately you feel kind of silly, right? Right. You shouldn't, you're the victim there. Right. People do feel kind of silly in those positions for sure.

Like, oh, I shouldn't have trusted him even though he's wrong for doing it. Of course, yeah. One of the people that this con had already worked on was actually his girlfriend, Lynn's own sister, who once needed a washer and dryer, and Myron claimed that he had a friend in construction who could get her one for a good price.

So Lynn's sister gave him somewhere between 150 to $300. But she never got the washer and dryer or her money back, and she only got endless excuses from Myron. [00:36:00] In another example, he once coached a pony league baseball team for a season, which that was nightmare inducing just to hear that he was coaching a children's, uh, team.

But during that season, he told the boy's parents that he was enrolling the team in a tournament and that he needed $50 upfront from each parent so that they could secure a spot. Several parents paid him, but the tournament never happened and the parents were of course unsuccessful in getting their $50 deposits back.

It was also learned that Myron made a number of remarks to friends and family that kind of implicated him in Bob's disappearance and even pointed towards the possibility that Bob was murdered. For example, he told a close friend of his sister that he could never go back to Washington because quote, they think I killed someone.

And later that same friend overheard Myron saying quote. I don't know what the big deal was. The guy was a weasel, he was a crook. Is he talking about himself? I don't know. I know, I, I have no idea. But he [00:37:00] further said that he wasn't even worried that the police would come down to Texas to get him because they didn't have any evidence to prove anything against him.

The most damning statements were made to Myron's friend William, and this is somebody who was also friends with Myron's sister Brenda. Sometimes Myron would stay with William when they worked together, and one time Myron told William that he had nothing to worry about because those clowns referring to the police weren't even in the right ballpark and didn't have any evidence.

He told William that if someone wanted to get away with murder. All they'd have to do is have no witnesses, no body, and to get rid of the weapon. He said the best way to get rid of a body was to put it in a duffle bag, put chains around it, and throw it in the river. And he also said the first time is the hardest, and after that it is quote, a piece of cake.

That's scary, chilling. So it was learned that Myron had overdue medical bills and several judgements against him in [00:38:00] small claims court amounting to thousands of dollars. The police believed that Myron was desperate for money and that he had tried to run his same old scam on Bob, but the stakes were much higher.

They believed that he pretended to be a middleman for the Thunderbird sale. Took money up for a deposit. There was never a Thunderbird to begin with. So when Bob kept asking him, when's Cecile gonna happen? Myron tries to put him off for as long as possible, but when Bob starts getting impatient, he has to come up with another plan.

Taking Bob to Mother Nature's Acres was really just a diversion, but soon enough, Bob realized something fishy was going on and he confronted Myron, who then panicked and killed Bob, took his cash in ring and hid Bob's body. All of this evidence was circumstantial, but there was a lot of it, and it was clear that Myron was the last person to see Bob alive, and it was clear that Myron was the last person to see Bob.

And while his body has never been found, there's also been no indication that he's still alive. [00:39:00] Myron's numerous inconsistent statements to police only added to the mounting suspicion that he had a part in Bob's death. Finally, prosecutors decided that they had enough to proceed with charges, and on January 30th.

2009, they issued a warrant for Myron's arrest. He was charged with first degree murder, which they said was because he committed the murder while committing the felony of robbery. They requested that his bail be set at $1 million due to the fact that he fled Washington. Shortly after Bob disappeared and told people that he couldn't go back.

He also used at least two aliases and was currently living under a fake name. He was also a flight risk since he had no ties to Washington and had been living in Texas, where he also had a current pending misdemeanor assault charge, so therefore, he's still a danger to society. In December of 2010, Myron went to trial for the first time.

Prosecutors told the jury about all their circumstantial evidence and their theory about what happened. [00:40:00] Myron's defense argued that he was innocent and that there wasn't even any evidence that Bob was murdered and there was no way of knowing for sure that the diamond the authorities recovered was actually bob's.

The trial ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to come to a unanimous decision. After three days of deliberating. Myron was retried in April of 2011 with prosecutors presenting pretty much the same case that they did the first time. Only this time they got what they came for. Myron was convicted.

However, he motioned for a new trial based on claims that the evidence presented was not sufficient. The court denied the motion at the sentencing hearing. Myron said, I'm not gonna sit here today and beg for forgiveness for something I didn't do. He was ultimately sentenced to 20 years, which was the minimum sentence.

Bob's family said that it was a victory even though it wasn't as lengthy as they hoped. Rebecca said quote, he was found guilty and he's not going to do this to [00:41:00] anyone else. In the end, he still has to meet his maker and isn't that the final judge? Myron appealed his conviction, but the court affirmed it.

He's currently 63 and he's incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center, but he's scheduled for release in May of 2031, at which time he will be 70 years old. Bob Wiki's remains have never been found. If you have any information, please contact the King County Sheriff's Office at 2 0 6 2 9 6 4 1 5 5, and we've also put together a flyer for Bob's case, which we will share on social media.

So if you see that, please share it no matter where you live. That case, I, I just don't know. I don't understand why Myron inserted himself when there didn't seem to be any reason for him to start with, you know, Kim, and then go to Rebecca and then go to the detectives. Why was he doing this? If they're not looking for him, why?

[00:42:00] Why did he think to do this? I don't get that. I feel like he did that and I feel like people do this 'cause you hear about this where it's like the police don't even have you on their radar, but then here you come popping up and somehow offering to help in some way in the investigation. That's like arson crazy.

I feel like. It's because they're so, they have such a guilty conscious and they really are so paranoid about getting caught that like they're trying to find out, like they're trying to get ahead of it and talk to people and find out like, what do the police know? What they know, right? Like, are they onto me at all?

You know, but they're thinking they're gonna be sneaky about it and no one's gonna suspect anything. Especially if you use a fake name. Right, exactly. Uh, so that's the only thing that I could think of because otherwise, yeah. Why would you ever go talk to his family and like, call the detectives like that does, that's.

Crazy. You're just asking like, I'm glad that people do things like that. Of course. But it is crazy to me that people don't realize that they are just walking into their own arrest at that point. Like, you know that once [00:43:00] you, once the police make contact with you in this case, like they're not just gonna forget that you existed.

You know, they're gonna like have your name written down somewhere. So probably don't do that if you don't wanna get caught. Yeah. Well do that, but do that. We're suggesting that you should, but also, uh, good for Rebecca for following her instincts, because I can see in that situation where you're like, I just wanna find my dad.

Right. And you're not, you know, maybe thinking the way you normally would and you're just desperate to meet somebody and who knows. This guy's capable of anything. Yeah. Clearly. Yeah. Clearly a scam artist. And, um, totally. Yeah. And I know didn't a desperate one. Yeah. And we didn't get. Too much really into what the theory or reasons were why they think, you know, that Bob was killed in this transaction, but some of his friends and family think that.

Bob caught on to the fact that it was a scam, right? And that he was, you know, not gonna have any of that. And that, uh, things escalated from there. So this story is like so terribly sad. You know, Melissa, I [00:44:00] always have a soft spot for cases where, and somebody who's older is taken advantage of in some way by someone who is younger especially.

And, um, you know, even in terms of like physical strength and capabilities, like, I just, it makes me like very angry to hear about a 30 5-year-old man. Attacking a 65-year-old man over, right. A $5,000, a thousand dollars. Like it's just, yeah, I don't understand that ever. Yeah, I agree. Okay, so Melissa, are you ready to turn the page?

Not just today, but maybe forever. Okay. But we're not closing the book. The book is closing the book show. The page is lasting before we go. So we are really busy now. We are making so much content, which we're only just like stepping our toe into, but it's really fun. I'm really enjoying it. We are, um. Doing a lot over on Patreon.

So if you've ever considered going to Patreon and you're on the fence about it, totally get it. Um, some of the [00:45:00] benefits that we have right now, they're $5 tiers, 10 and 15, and with five, you get three bonus episodes every month. This month is really all the JonBenet Ramsey episodes that we're recapping.

But you know, in the future there will be other things. Obviously, there's also access to the Discord server, which we're actually working on to know what we're doing. I talked to a very nice guy who tried to help me. Yes. And I think he thought I was a lost cause. We're getting professional input for things so that we can actually, we are, um, be professionals.

We can attempt to be professionals. Yes. Um, the $10 tier has a monthly discord party, which we figured out, which is like a watch party. So we're gonna watch an episode of, on Netflix. It's Worst roommate ever. I don't think you've seen it yet, man. Not yet. So I can't wait for you to see it. Seen it on my Netflix like.

Recommended watch list. So I've been curious about it, so I'm excited. So yeah, for the Discord watch party. Yeah. Um, like you were saying, for Patreon, we'll be doing that every month. So if you're at the $10 [00:46:00] tier, then you will get access to this, these watch parties. And it's fun. We're literally gonna watch TV together, which is really something if you know, um, how much I don't watch tv.

Normally we had to literally made it park. Make it part of your job description to make you watch tv. Um, and then our highest tier, uh, $15 a month, all of that. Plus we're actually gonna have people sitting in on our live recordings when we record like our bonus episodes, which is really super exciting.

I'm a little nervous. I'm nervous too. I'm nervous. Yes. But it's actually exciting. Um, I think it's exciting. I think it'll be fun. I'm excited about all the new stuff that we're. Offering on Patreon, we have that. We have bonus chat one chats. We have um, also Zoom Hangouts at that level. So there's a lot.

Please check out our, um, we have a calendar just for Patreon now. Oh my gosh. Just for Patreon. And let's see, we're gonna stick to it because we have a calendar. Yes, that's. Mandy and I work, if we have a calendar, we can do it. It's getting done. So the rest of this month we have December [00:47:00] 11th, JonBenet Ramsey, part two on Netflix is on the 11th, the 16th.

We have a bonus chat episode. Another JonBenet Ramsey Netflix recap. Um, on the 18th and on the 22nd we have a Zoom hangout where you can come up on video if you want. If you don't want to, that's okay, but we can all chat and we'll be there. You know, we do whatever. We'll be there. We'll be there. We'll there, whether you're there or not.

We'll be there. Yes. But please be there. Yes. So, yeah, and if that sounded like a lot of information that was super confusing, um, we understand all of it, you can find at patreon.com/moms Mysteries podcast. Perfect. And we'll have it in the show notes. It'll be the first thing you see in show notes this week.

Yes. Just in case. So, yeah, I think so. That's it. So that's it about Patreon. I'm not sure if we clearly expressed before we went off on that whole tangent that, you know, lasting before we go has been super fun. We loved doing it and thought that it was a really fun way to get to play like some silly little games and answer questions.

And over the years we've answered like [00:48:00] so many questions people used to send them in. I feel like we have told everyone. So much about us through. The last thing before we go second, maybe too much, maybe. Yes, and it will always have a, a dear place in my heart, but we're gonna be offering so much content now on Patreon, including a bunch of new ways to interact with us just in a casual way and not all true crime.

So if that interests you and that's something that you wanna check out, like I said, go check out Patreon. There's some super exciting stuff happening over there. Absolutely. And we're still here every week, so don't worry about that. That's all staying the same. And yes, that was a super confusing way that I set that up.

My apologies. Listen to Mandy, she does it much better. And uh, yeah, we will. We'll be over there. We'll be here. Yes. We'll, we'll see you soon. We'll see. We will see you soon. I feel like I can't even, I need to think of a new outro now. I can't even say same time, same place. Wait, I guess I can, that you can say that because we're still, yeah.

Mm-hmm. I can still say that. That one's still a thing. All right, guys. Go ahead, take [00:49:00] away a story for this week. We'll see you back next week. Same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.