Cases That Haunt Me: The Murder of Stacey Colbert

It was around four o'clock in the morning when a man living in an apartment building near Ohio State University was suddenly awakened. At first, he wasn't sure what he was hearing, but then it happened again. Loud banging, the sound of something being knocked around in the apartment below him, and then something even more disturbing, the sound of a woman screaming from the apartment below. The screams were coming from the apartment where a twenty three year old woman named Stacy Colbert lived. The neighbor later reported hearing the disturbance for some time. At one point he even put his ear to the floor to listen more closely to what was happening, but he didn't go check on Stacy right away. Hours passed. It wasn't until later that afternoon, around two p m. That he finally went downstairs and knocked on her door. There was no answer, and by the time anyone realized what was truly going on, Stacy Colbert had vanished. Welcome back to Case Uncovered, where we uncover some of the most compelling and lesser known true crime cases. I'm your host, John Rivera. Now, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while. You know that the cases we talk about here don't just disappear from my mind once the episode is finished. The truth is, all of these cases stay with me, But there are some cases that stick with me in a different way, especially the ones where I've had the opportunity to connect with the people who knew and loved the victim. When I speak with their friends, their families, the people who grew up with them, laughed with them, shared life with them, you start to learn about the person behind the case. You start to see who they really were, and in a way, it almost begins to feel like you know them too. So when those cases remain unsolved, when there's no resolution, no accountability, and no justice for the person whose life was taken, it's not just frustrating, it's infuriating. And sometimes the details of these cases leave you with the feeling that's really hard to shake because the answers feel so close, close enough that it raises another question entirely, why hasn't justice happened yet? And that's exactly why I created a new monthly series called Cases that Haunt Me. Once a month, I'll be revisiting cases that i've personally spent time investigating cases where I've connected with the people closest to the victim, and cases where the lack of answers still weighs heavily on everyone who loved them. Today's case is one of those stories, and that's the unsolved murder of Stacy Colbert. Stacy's case is one that has stayed with me for a long time, not only because of the tragedy of what happened to her, but because when you really start looking closely at the details, something becomes painfully clear. The question of who may be responsible doesn't appear to be much of a mystery. The real question becomes, why hasn't Stacy's case been solved? Why are we still talking about this today without answers, without justice, and without anyone being held accountable. Those are the questions that continue to haunt the people who loved Stacy, and they're the questions we're going to explore today. Now. If Stacy's name sounds familiar to some of you, that might be because I covered her case two years ago on the first season of by investigative podcast The Unseen Truth. That season was designed to be short form and easily digestible, for listeners. The entire season covering Stacy's case is about an hour in total, spread across six shorter episodes, and it includes interviews with Stacy's friends, family members, and the detective who continues to work her case today. So if you want to go deeper into Stacy's story after listening to today's episode, I highly encourage you to check that out. But today we're going to walk through Stacy's story together because before Stacy became the subject of an unsolved murder investigation, she was a daughter, a sister, a friend, a young woman with her whole future ahead of her, and when her life was taken she was only twenty three years old. Before we go any further into the details of the case, it's important to take a moment and talk about who Stacy was, because when a case becomes unsolved, the story often becomes focused entirely on the crime. But Stacy Colbert was so much more than the circumstances surrounding her death. In nineteen ninety eight, Stacey was twenty three years old and living in Columbus, Ohio, just a few miles from the Ohio State University campus. The year before, she had graduated from Fisher College of Business at Ohio State with a Bachelor of Science and Business Administration, where she focused on marketing. She had big dreams of building a career in that field, and she was already well on her way. Stacy had recently started working as a marketing assistant at American Electric Power, one of the largest electric energy companies in the United States. For someone just starting out in their career, it was an exciting opportunity. She had her own apartment at the Governor's Square Apartment complex. She was close to campus, and she was surrounded by the friends she had made during her time at Ohio State. Even better, her sister Danielle was nearby as well. The two had always been incredibly close, growing up only about two inns and half years apart. They shared that kind of bond that many sisters have, the kind where you're not just family but also friends. When Stacy eventually joined Danielle at Ohio State after first attending Lakeland Community College, the sisters created their own little tradition. They would meet up for coffee near campus and catch up on life. It was something simple, but it meant so much to both of them. Friends described Stacy as someone who was driven, social, and incredibly passionate about the things she cared about. She was the kind of person who gave one hundred and ten percent to everything she did, whether it was school, her career, or the friendship she built along the way. And by early nineteen ninety eight, it seemed like everything in Stacy's life was falling into place. She had a new job, she was excited about her own apartment, friends nearby, and a future that looked incredibly promising. The week of March sixteenth, nineteen ninety eight, was a normal week, according to Stacy's friends and family. There was nothing out of the ordinary that happened or any red flags. On the evening of Friday, March twentieth, Stacy met up with friends and co workers at a local spot in Columbus called Arlington Cafe. It was a familiar hangout for many people connected to Ohio State, and Stacy had spent time there before. Later that night, she returned home to her apartment. The next day, Saturday, March twenty first, Stacy spent most of the day at home. She had originally planned to go out that evening, but according to reports, she wasn't feeling well and decided to stay in instead. At around six pm, she ordered breadsticks from Papa John's. The delivery driver would later tell investigators that he had a very brief interaction with Stacy when he dropped off the order. It was the last time anyone is known to have seen her alive. After that moment, the timeline becomes quiet. Sometime during the early morning hours of Sunday, March twenty second, teen ninety eight, something violent unfolded inside Stacy's apartment. At around four am, a neighbor living in the apartment above Stacy woke up to the sound of loud banging. Then he heard something even more alarming, a woman screaming. The neighbor later told investigators that the sounds were coming from the apartment directly below his Stacy's apartment. At one point, he put his ear to the floor to try to hear what was happening more clearly, But despite hearing what sounded like someone in distress, he didn't call the police. He didn't go downstairs to check on her either, well, not right away at least. Instead, the morning passed, hours went by. It wasn't until around two pm that afternoon that the neighbor finally went downstairs and knocked on Stacy's door. There was no answer, but sitting outside the apartment was Stacy's cat. For the people who knew Stacy, that detail alone was alarming Stacy. He loved her cat and rarely let him outside, especially because the apartment complex sat near a busy road. Something clearly wasn't right, but it would take another day before Stacy's family realized something was terribly wrong. For nearly two days after the sounds were heard in Stacy's apartment, life around her continued as if nothing had happened. No one knew what had taken place inside that small apartment. Stacy didn't show up to work, she didn't return phone calls, and the people who loved her had no reason yet to believe something was terribly wrong. But eventually the silence became impossible to ignore. The first real alarm came from Stacy's workplace. American Electric Power realized that Stacy had missed work not just once, but multiple days, and that just wasn't like her. Stacy was dependable, She had only been in the role for a short time, and by all accounts she she took her job very seriously. When someone like that suddenly disappears from their responsibilities without warning. People notice, and they start asking questions. Around the same time, Stacy's sister, Danielle, had also been trying to reach her. At first, it didn't seem unusual that Stacy hadn't answered, but as the hours stretched into days, that feeling slowly began to change. Something didn't feel right, so Danielle decided to go check on her. She drove to Stacy's apartment at the Governor's Square complex in Columbus, not far from where Danielle was living, and when she arrived, it became immediately clear that something was wrong, very very wrong. Inside the apartment, many of Stacy's personal belongings were exactly where they should have been. Her purse was there, her wallet was there, Her car keys were still inside the apartment and outside in the parking lot. Her car sat exactly where it had been left. If Stacy had gone somewhere willingly, she would have needed those things, but none of them had moved. As Danielle took in the scene, it became even more troubling. The front door had been slightly left open, and when police were called, investigators noticed a bootprint on the inside of the door. In the kitchen area, it looked as though Stacy had been in the middle of an ordinary evening. On the counter sat the box of breadsticks she had ordered the night before, still partially eaten. Nearby was a gallon of milk, and the refrigerator door had been left open. But one detail stood out more than anything else. There was a strong smell of bleach throughout the apartment. After seeing the state of Stacy's apartment, Danielle called police, and once investigators began processing the scene, the picture that emerged was deeply disturbing. This didn't look like someone who had simply left home. Everything about the apartment suggested that some thing violent and unexpected had taken place there, and yet Stacy herself was nowhere to be found. Before we continue, I want to take a quick moment to talk about something that's very important to me, especially as we continue to talk about Stacy's case, and that's personal safety. As many of you know, I'm a sexual assault survivor, and because of that, I've always been intentional about making sure I have tools with me that help me feel prepared and protected when I'm out. One of the products I carry everywhere is the Safely sidekick. I've been using Safely products since twenty twenty four and it's something I truly don't leave home without. Whether I'm traveling, going to events, or just out running errands. It's always on my keychain. Safely creates personal safety tool vices that are designed to be easy to carry and quick to use if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to protect yourself. Pepper spray is one of the simplest and most effective safety tools you can carry, and it's something I always recommend having with you. Safely is also a woman owned and operated company, which is something I really appreciate and love highlighting. If you'd like to check out their products, visit livesafely dot co and use code gen for ten percent off your order. Thank you Safely for sponsoring today's episode. Now let's get back to the case. As investigators began examining the scene inside Stacy's apartment, several details immediately stood out. First, it appeared that Stacy had likely let her attack her inside willingly. There were no clear signs of forest entry, and considering the time of night, this likely occurred sometime during the early morning hours. It suggests Stacy may have known the person who came to her door. Another detail investigators noted was that while most of Stacy's belongings were still inside the apartment, two specific items were missing. The first was a gold necklace pendant with a pie symbol inside a diamond shape, a necklace Stacy wore as part of her sorority. The second item was an amethyst birthstone ring with a gold band that Stacy was known to wear regularly. Those two items were never recovered. Investigators also had to consider the timeline based on what the neighbor reported hearing something happened inside Stacy's apartment at around four am, but the neighbor didn't go downstairs to check until two pm. That's roughly a ten hour window of time, ten hours where whoever was responsible for what happened inside the apartment had plenty of time to leave, plenty of time to clean up, and plenty of time to make Stacy disappear. For detectives working the case, one possibility continued to emerge, and that was clearly that Stacy knew her attacker, someone who had access to her, someone she may have trusted enough to open the door for for in the early morning hours, and as investigators began speaking with people in Stacy's life, certain names started to come up. One of those individuals was someone Stacy knew as an acquaintance in Stacy's season Season one of the Unseen Truth, I referred to him as Bob. Now, Bob wasn't some random stranger. He was someone Stacy had spent time around before, someone who had even helped her move into her apartment just months earlier. But when Stacy disappeared, something about Bob's reaction immediately raised questions. While friends, family members, and co workers were actively searching for Stacy and trying to help investigators however they could, Bob reportedly didn't want anything to do with it. When Stacy's family tried reaching out to him, his response was clear. They were told to leave him alone. For many people, that reaction felt really strange, because if someone you knew, someone you considered a friend, suddenly vanished under suspicious circumstances, most people would want to help. Most people would want to do anything they could to bring that person home. But Bob kept his distance and his silence, and while his alibi at the time appeared to check out his behavior on the other hand was something investigators and those close to Stacy never forgot. For years after Stacy disappeared, her family, friends, and detectives were left with more questions than answers. Search efforts continued, tips were investigated, leads were followed, but Stacy remained missing. For Stacy's family, every day without answers was another day of uncertainty. They didn't know where she was, they didn't know what had happened inside that apartment, and they didn't know if they would ever get the chance to bring her home. Then, more than six years after Stacy vanished, there was finally a development in the case. On November twenty seventh, two thousand and four, a man was walking through a wooded area along State Route two fifty seven in Delaware County, Ohio. He had been searching for his dog. While walking through the wooded area, he came across something that immediately caught his attention, human remains. Authorities were called to the scene and investigators began the process of determining who the remains belonged to. Eventually, those remains were identified as Stacy Colbert. For Stacy's family, the discovery brought a mix of emotions. After years of not knowing where Stacy was. They were finally able to bring her home and lay her to rest, but the answers they desperately wanted were still out of reach because due to the condition of Stacy's remains, the coroner was unable to determine an exact cause of death. Something that was also considered was whether Stacy's remains had been placed there at a later time, but detectives on the case believe Stacy had likely been in that location from the time of her disappearance until the day she was found. This meant that for more than six years, Stacy had been there waiting to be discovered, and in the years after Stacy disappeared, while the person responsible remained free, the case slowly faded from public view, leaving her family to live with questions that seemed to have no answers. Now. Long before Stacy's remains were found in two thousand and four, the case had already entered the kind of silence that families of the missing know all too well. The searches slowed down, the calls came less often, public attention started to fade. The people left behind are forced to live in a kind of painful limbo, wondering if the case will ever move again. By August of two thousand and one, it had been more than three years since Stacy disappeared from her apartment in Columbus. Publicly, there was very little movement, and for the people who loved her, that kind of silence was its own kind of heartbreak. When a case goes quiet for that long, people start looking anywhere they can for answers. That included information that came in from individuals claiming to have psychic abilities. Now, whether someone believes in psychics or not, I think it's important to acknowledge why families sometimes turn to those kinds of leads. When you love someone and you have no idea where they are. When years go by and there's still no arrest, no trial, no justice, and sometimes nobody to bring home, you start hoping that maybe somehow, one detail from somewhere will be the thing that finally breaks the case open. In Stacy's case, detectives were not using psychics as part of the official investigation, but there were anonymous psychics tips and recounts that circulated over the years, including one in two thousand and one and another in two thousand and four, and What made them stand out was how specific some of the descriptions were. Some of those statements pointed to the possibility that Stacy's remains were in a remote, outdoor area, and after Stacy was finally found near State Route two fifty seven in Delaware County, those details became even more unsettling in hindsight. Now, to be very clear, psychic tips are not evidence, they are not admissible in court, and they do not replace real investigative work. But they do become part of the larger story, especially in this case, because they reflect the desperation people felt to find Stacy, and because some of those descriptions were disturbing enough that they stayed with people. There were even people outside the official investigation who wondered whether the person submitting one of those anonymous tips might have known more than they should have known. That, of course, is speculation, and speculation is not proof, But what it does show is just how deeply people felt that the answer in Stacy's case was always sitting just beneath the surface, that the truth was so close that someone knew that someone still knows, and even after Stacy was finally found, that feeling didn't go away because finding Stacy mattered deeply, but it didn't solve the case. It didn't answer exactly what happened inside her apartment, and it did not put the person responsible behind bars. Today, Stacy Colbert's case is still officially considered an unsolved homicide. As of March eleventh, twenty twenty six, it has been twenty eight years since Stacy disappeared and more than twenty one years since her remains were found in November two thousand and four. That is nearly three decades without the kind of justice Stacy and her family deserve, nearly three decades without answers, nearly three decades without accountability, and that is exactly why this case continues to haunt me. Because when you spend time looking at the facts of this case, when you speak with the people who loved Stacy, and when you really sit with the timeline of what happened, it becomes difficult to ignore what many people connected to this case have believed for a very long time that Stacy likely knew the person responsible. And that belief makes this case even more frustrating, because if Stacy knew the person who heard her, then it's very possible that someone else knows something too. Someone may remember a conversation, a strange reaction, or a story that never quite made sense, a detail that didn't seem important at the time but feels very different looking back now. That's often how cases like this are solved, not just through forensic evidence, but through someone deciding that it's finally time to speak up. I also had the opportunity to briefly speak with the detective currently assigned to Stacy's case when I was producing the series about her story. And while there are details investigators obviously cannot share publicly, one thing was clear. This case has not been forgotten. Investigators are still working on it, and advances in DNA technology continue to give people hope that one day the evidence will finally point directly to the person responsible. One of the ways Stacy's story continues to stay alive today is through a page called Finishing Stacy's Fight. The pages run by Stacy's friends and family, the people who knew and loved her and who have never stopped fighting for answers. They continue to share updates about the case and encourage people to keep Stacy's story visible, because sometimes all it takes is the right person seeing a post remembering something or finally deciding to come forward. Stacy's story is not over, and the people who loved her are determined to keep fighting until the person responsible is finally held accountable. Cases like Stacy's remind us why stories like this matter, because behind every case file, every police report, every headline is a real person whose life mattered. Stacy was a daughter, a sister, and a friend. She was someone who had an entire future ahead of her, and while her life was taken far too soon, the people who loved her continue to make sure that her voice is never silenced. Stories like Stacy's deserve to be told, and they deserve to be remembered. And as a listener, one of the most powerful things you can do is share this episode. The more people who hear Stacy's story, the greater the chance that someone out there may remember something or come forward with information. If you have any information about the murder of Stacy Colbert, please contact the Delaware County, Ohio Detective Bureau at seven four zero eight three three two eight three zero. I'll make sure to add the information in the show notes below, and if you'd like to continue following updates in Stacy's case. Make sure to follow Finishing Stacy's fight on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Before we close today's episode, I want to take a moment to share something really important that we're working on through the Reignited Project. If you're new here, The Regnited Project is a five oh one c three nonprofit that I founded dedicated to advocacy, awareness, and support for families impacted by violent crime and missing persons cases. Right now, our team is preparing for our next community donation drive, where we'll be collecting non perishable food items for the Lockport Fish Pantry and local micro pantries here in the chicagoan area. These pantries help provide meals and everyday essentials for families in our community who may be going through a difficult time, and we're really honored to be able to contribute to that effort. If you're local to the Chicagoan area and would like to donate items or help support this drive, you can reach out directly to Rose, our director of Community Advocacy and Outreach. You can contact her via email at roseat the Reignited Project dot com. I'll make sure I leave for contact information in the show notes below, and if you'd like to stay connected with the work we're doing through the Reignited Project and become a part of our community, what we call the Hive, you can sign up for our free monthly newsletter that's where we share updates on our advocacy work, upcoming initiatives, and ways you can get involved. You can sign up by visiting the Reignited Project dot com. As always, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Case Uncovered or our monthly series Cases That Haunt Me. Whether you're a longtime listener or you're new to the show, Leaving a five star rating and review is one of the easiest ways you can support the podcast. It's completely free, it only takes a few seconds, and it helps more people discover these stories. More listeners means more awareness for the cases and the families we talk about here. Until next time, stay curious, stay vigilant, and stay safe out there. Fire Eyes Media