The Space Between: The Disappearance of Adrienne Salinas

On the morning of June 15, 2013, 19-year-old Adrienne Celeste Salinas vanished just blocks from her Tempe, Arizona apartment.

She had spent the night at a party with friends—surrounded by people, in a place she felt safe. But by the early morning hours, something had shifted. After leaving, returning, and then leaving again around 4:00 a.m., Adrienne walked out into the quiet streets of Tempe… and was never seen alive again.

What followed is a timeline filled with movement—but very little clarity.

A mysterious crash near Rio Salado Parkway.
A damaged car, abandoned just blocks from home.
A cab ride confirmed, and then abandoned.

Months later, Adrienne’s remains were found miles away—turning a missing persons case into something far more devastating.

But even now, more than a decade later, the most critical question remains:

What happened in the space between?

In this episode of Vanished Voices, we walk through Adrienne’s final hours step by step—unpacking the timeline, the investigation, the inconsistencies, and the haunting gaps that still remain. From the party that night… to the crash… to the last known sightings… this is a case defined not just by what we know—but by everything we don’t.

Because sometimes, the most important moments…
are the ones no one can fully explain.

If you have any information about the disappearance and death of Adrienne Celeste Salinas, no matter how small it may seem, please contact the Tempe Police Department at (480) 350-8311 or submit a tip through the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Even the smallest detail—something you may not have thought mattered at the time—could help bring answers to Adrienne’s family.

Someone knows what happened. And your voice could make the difference.

To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here.

Thank you so much for listening to Vanished Voices. We truly appreciate you!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hi, welcome to Vanished Voices. We're your host, I'm Jenna.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I'm Shannon. Before we dive in, a quick ask. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, please take a moment to rate and review Vanished Voices. It helps push these stories further. And if you're on YouTube, hit subscribe and turn on the bell so you never miss an episode. Thank you for helping us amplify these voices.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yes, thank you. The story I have for you today is the kind that makes your brain do that thing where it keeps replaying the same handful of minutes over and over. Because those minutes are all anyone has. A 19-year-old college student goes out on an early summer Friday night. She had been at home with friends in a place that's supposed to be safe, her apartment. She leaves, she comes back again, she leaves again. There's a car wreck just a short distance away, then a cab ride that never happens, a convenience store she never reaches, a phone that goes dead at 5.07 a.m. And after that, nothing. Two months later, her remains are found in a desert wash in Apache Junction, miles away from the apartment where she was last seen. Investigators still don't know how she got there, when she got there, or who put her there. So if you're like me, you can already feel the big question taking shape. What happened between the moment she left her apartment, the moment her phone went dead, because that is the center of this whole case. This is the story of Adrien Celeste Salinas. Adrienne was 19 years old in June of 2013. She was a student at Gateway Community College. She lived in a townhouse style place in Tempe with two close friends, her roommates, after they'd made what felt like a big grown-up leap, moving out of their parents' homes and renting their own spot. I want you to keep that in mind because it matters for the emotional timeline of this case. Her roommates described that apartment as their first real or out on our own place. They had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a patio. Something that finally felt like independence. One roommate later said she always felt safe there. Adrian's dad, Rick, remembered her telling him she was getting an apartment and him having that very parent reaction. I don't want you to, but you're 19. It's the push and the pull between fear, but also pride that your baby is feeling independent enough to take this leap. And there's another layer, one that people don't always talk about, but it does service in early coverage. She had been through some major health problems earlier that year. She had gotten what's called valley fever. Her case was pretty serious. She had to have surgery to help with some of the lung scarring.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard of someone to have to actually have surgery from it. I know it's a very long, hard, arduous process to recover from, but I didn't realize surgery could be involved.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Yeah. She had had surgery, so she did have a job, but she wasn't back to work. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

So she's still on at like FMLA. Mm-hmm. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah. Adrienne had a bright personality. Her friends say she was the kindest, sweetest person they'd ever met. When we look at Adrien's last night, there are some contradictory things at first. Her roommates and friends described their apartment as somewhere where they could host people, where parties happened, a place where it was invite everyone that you can kind of vibe. Multiple sources also say on this particular night, June 14th, Adrian wasn't feeling social. Her roommate said she wasn't in the partying mood. She was dealing with a little bit of relationship stress. And the relationship part is unavoidable in this story. Adrian's longtime boyfriend, Fran, who had known her for years. Her dad, Rick, said the whole family had known Fran since he and Adrian met in eighth grade. And one roommate said it felt like they'd known each other since they were kids. Investigators described the relationship, though, as on again, off again, and strained at least the night she disappeared. Everything that we'll talk about in this case comes from a patchwork from police statements, reports by media, as many records as we've been able to source. There are surveillance findings that some have been made public. There are interviews, especially in the unresolved docuseries that was done by Arizona Family Reporting and also People Magazine investigates. A lot of these things come from those sources.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, I know I've definitely seen the People Magazine investigates.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Now, Friday night, June 14th, there was a birthday celebration at Adrian's apartment. Both the FBI's public case summary and multiple media accounts describe it as a party. It wasn't a tiny hangout either. In reporting, it says dozens of people, and some reporting says 40 plus people. Adrian's roommates say she wasn't excited to have the party. She wasn't feeling particularly social.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Whose birthday was it?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

A mutual friend.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Okay. So they were hosting for the friend. So it wasn't any of the people that lived in the apartment. I don't believe so. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Adrienne was reportedly upset about her boyfriend showing interest in other women at the party. The party was loud. That's a lot of people in a small townhouse. And still wanting to make sure they're on good terms, they decide to leave to go talk about things at Fran's place. He lived in South Scottsdale, around Indian School in Hayden.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Uh, I used to live in apartments over there.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Did you? It's a nice area because you're so close to Tempe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Sunscape. I'm not actually that's what it was called when I lived there. I don't know if that's still the name of that complex, but yeah, I'm like, whoa, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

I know those cross streets.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah, because I used to call it the ones with the blue and yellow awnings because that was the color outside the windows. And they also had a fire there back in like the 90s.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

One of the sections of the complex got taken out.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Interesting. I wonder if it is the same. I just thought the cards are in the case. I mean, there's other residences names.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah, there's other residences over there, but that's like the big one.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Interesting. So you'll be able to give us the drive times.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, I didn't realize. Yeah, because I think, again, from watching the show, I assumed he was close in Tempe where she was, not that this molded into Scottsdale.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

So that's interesting too. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

They get to his place around 2 30. It sounds like they weren't getting anywhere with their conversation. I mean, arguing at 2 30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Like the typical, no, I'm not doing that, you're imagining it type conversation. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

So by about three, Adrian said she wanted to go back to her house, and Fran agrees to drive her back. Now, according to Fran, when they were getting close to Adrian's, a few blocks away, Adrian decided she wanted to walk the rest of the way. And I'm not sure if the car ride had been a little contentious or I mean at 19, I wanted to be dramatic.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I mean, let's be dramatic and get out and walk the rest of the way home.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

See if you follow me or whatever. Exactly. It sounds like it wasn't while he was driving, like he had a stop sign or a stoplight. She got out and started walking. Fran was concerned. He called one of Adrian's roommates, Rebecca. He tells her what happened and asked that she call him when Adrian makes it home. And then he heads back to his apartment. And Rebecca does. She calls Fran back around 3:30 and lets him know Adrian's back and everything is good. But Adrian doesn't stay for long, according to her roommates. She charged her phone. She packed an overnight bag and told them she was going back to France for the night.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Now, is this his own apartment also? Or is this like, is he living with his parents?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

I don't get the feeling he's living with his parents, but I'm not sure if he has roommates.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

They're the same age, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Yeah. Okay. They were in eighth grade. Together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

So I'm that's what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

So I'm guessing he has roommates. Okay. Yeah, same. Yeah. Adrien decided to drive herself this time. Now, at approximately 3 45 a.m. on June 15th, Tempe Police received a report about a white sedan crashing into a median near Ash Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway. It damaged both front tires. They were flat. This caller was like a really early morning Starbucks worker. And she watched this crash happen. She sees the car try to make a too tight turn at too high of a speed, hit the curb, damage both the front tires, and crash into this other structure right there. The woman who watched this calls 911, but also went over to see if the driver was okay. Before she got there, the car sped off.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

With two popped tires? Yeah. So you're driving on rims. Like that's crazy. And it's like hard.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah. And I don't know if and this was Adrian's car.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

We don't have a description of who was driving, but we assume it was Adrian. We don't know.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

But the woman did get the license plate, which we'll come back to.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Did her roommates ever say she when she left to go to saying she was going to France, grab the overnight bag that she left with somebody?

SPEAKER_00 10:35

No, she left alone.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

According to them.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

From what they saw.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

My feeling is though, when you think about those house parties, 3 30 in the morning, people coming, going.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

I'm surprised a house party in Tempe was still going on at 3 30 in the morning. Like me too. Usually the cops come by by then. I mean, that's right by ASU. So they break it up. They're on top now. I have to assume that But it is summer. Right. Summer, so there's less people. Even 40, they would have started shedding people, especially at that time of day. And by the time you get to maybe down to like 10, and it's generally they'll tell you to take it inside, indoors, versus like outside at your pool area or whatever. But I've I used to do it. We had a house that we all hung out at. And yes, we'd get to midnight, 1 a.m. and we'd start shedding the partygoers and just like the friend group would stay back, but we would move it indoors to avoid police showing up and not be outside in the right like the outside back pool area. And now a townhouse would have a communal pool, so I doubt that they would be out there. So I would assume besides the patio, you would have to be indoors or you would get the police to show up.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So that happened at 3 45. We know she the roommate called and said she's back at 3 30. Was really quick. After that, nobody sees Adrian, but we're gonna come back to that. Adrienne is really close to her family. They had planned a barbecue to celebrate Father's Day, which was on June 16th. So that party was Friday night into the morning of Saturday, and then Father's Day is the next on Sunday. Adrian's father, Rick, had reached out to confirm details with Adrian on June 15th. He never heard back. He left a message. He was looking forward to seeing her. But as the day is passing, he hasn't heard back from Adrian and she doesn't show up. Rick had raised Adrian and her younger brother mostly on his own. Her mom is still in the area, but he was the one.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

The primary caretaker.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

It's completely unlike Adrian not to call, not to show up, especially on Father's Day. Also, every time Rick calls, the call is going straight to voicemail, which is a huge red flag. Adrian is a teenager still, 19, always has her phone charged. He's in full panic mode. He reaches out to Adrian's roommate, Shani. He asks her if Adrian was there. She says, no, Adrian isn't. And actually, I haven't seen her since the party the night of the 14th. She says she assumed Adrian was either with him or at Fran's. The last she heard, Adrian was heading up to France to spend the night. Rick says, okay, maybe her phone is damaged or something. He likes Fran. He trusts Fran. He calls him next. And for the second time, he gets the answer he was really not wanting. Fran says, no, Adrian isn't here. He says he's been trying to call her as well. She hasn't called him back either.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

So did he ever think it was odd that she never showed up? I guess Saturday morning now at he's probably expecting her by 4 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Yeah. So he did. He did. He was starting to become concerned. Then okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

And in his point of view, maybe she decided not to. And she's still mad. Well, yeah. Right. She's ignoring me, not really thinking that anything happened. Agreed. Yeah. Agreed. He tells Rick the timeline of the night of the 14th. He tells him the last I saw her, I dropped her off, sort of. Right. Rebecca did call though to let me know that Adrian made it home. So Rick decides to go over to Adrian's townhouse or apartment. He needs to get all these times and versions straight. Rebecca, who's Adrian's other roommate, is at the apartment when Rick gets there. She confirms that Adrian made it home. She tells him that Adrian didn't stay very long, though, unless she knew Adrien was heading to Fran's place. So everyone thinks she's somewhere. Right. And so the panic didn't start quite as soon. Yeah. Rick calls the Tempe Police Department and Adrian is officially reported missing on June 16th, 2013. Her father's alarm is a major reason that this case escalates quickly. And the unresolved reporting investigators said that at first a missing college student doesn't automatically scream crime, but her father insisted this wasn't normal. And all the details that they're giving police definitely don't feel like she left on her own. Right. Police head over to Adrian's to take the report from everyone who can help piece the timeline together. Finding out that Adrian left in her own car makes sense. Her car isn't at the townhouse. But as they're going through Adrien's room, things immediately start to not make sense. They find her car key. And everyone says that Adrienne only had one key. They swear Adrienne only has one. I guess it's a thing. You know, sometimes it gets misplaced. There's not a backup. And they find that key in her room. They also find Adrien's purse in her room with all of like her bank cards, her ID, everything.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, that does not make sense. If she left, although, okay, she pops both tires, maybe she turns around and goes home again. Right. And now I'm like, oh, so then did she try walking to Fran's house? Which seems crazy because why wouldn't you just call him to come and get you?

SPEAKER_00 16:46

So she And that's not that's a walk that's to get too far from I mean, I don't know where eight miles.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Well, to get I don't know where do we know the cross streets of her townhouse in Tempe?

SPEAKER_00 16:58

She's right by university in Hardy.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Yeah. So to get to Hayden and Indian school, that's yeah, seven to eight miles, but to walk it, we're talking hours. So that just doesn't make sense. No.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Also in her room are the clothes that Adrian had been wearing at the party. They're the only clothes that anyone saw her in that night. Rebecca is certain that when she saw Adrien leave to drive to France, she was still wearing that outfit. So to me, there has to be some point in the timeline where Adrian came back, maybe changed.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Oh, but her car is not in complex. So she gosh.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

So she drove away from where that was.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

So that crash at Ash and Rio Salado from University in Hardy, that's not horribly far.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

And she drove some of it.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Right. So to even go back and abandon the car somewhere in Tempe and then walk the rest of the way to get back home. But it's still I yeah, I could see leaving the car key. But why would you leave? And okay, yeah, maybe changing your clothes because heck, maybe you hit the king had some blood on it. Right clothes. But leaving the purse with the bank cards, like that doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Unless she's not thinking straight. But nobody saw her come back.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah. What time did the party end? That I'm not sure on. I couldn't find So I'm like, were that was there still people there?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

And maybe her roommates had the roommates gone asleep.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Had the roommates gone to bed, have had the party goers now officially all gone. 4 a.m. is long. So it is even at 19, I feel like at that point, like get out of my house.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Totally. Adrienne decided after that. We know from phone records and further reporting that she had decided to call a cab to take her to France. Later that day on the 16th, police do put together that the 911 call from 3:45 a.m. on the 15th about the car crash, they figure out that this was Adrian. They got the plates, they're able to match that. They're also looking for Adrian's car, not knowing that the crash had happened. Now, the reporting says one of two things happened next. Either Rick and Fran are out looking in the area and find her car the night of the 16th, or police find it early on the morning of the 17th. But either way, they find her car, they're able to process it on the morning of the 17th. And it was only a few blocks from where Adrian lives.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Okay. So she did drive it somewhat and then abandon it. Yes, on those rims.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Now, for whatever reason, police look at the car, they take pictures, but they don't actually impound it or do a deeper search for evidence. Pretty quickly, they released the car to Adrian's dad. In the car, they find a notebook and she had a Blackberry phone sitting on the driver's seat.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

Why wouldn't they take that?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

They didn't take anything. They just took the pictures, but they don't take either item.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

That's weird. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

It's they realize it the next day on the 18th, and they go to get the car. Both those things are gone. Not with the dad? The notebook her mom had, she'd been looking through it. She gives it right back to police. No one can find the phone. To this day. What? They haven't found the phone.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

The car was released to the dad.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

What it doesn't make sense. No. That part of it I I don't understand. Now, multiple sources say investigators worked Leeds aggressively. They canvassed her neighborhood. They interviewed everybody that had been at the party, all the neighbors. They did pull cell phone records. They got an exigent record request, which gives them a limited set of records. Police are able to get that without a warrant. So it will show calls and texts like ingoing and outgoing, but not the details of those messages. So you can see the very basics and you can get it really fast.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Now, do they say that they see Fran attempting to call her, wondering where she was? They do. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

They also see that Adrian had made over 40 calls to Fran in those early morning hours. And he was asleep for some of them. He was woken up by the text that said she was coming over, but then he assumed she was going to be able to go. She changed her mind when she didn't come. Now, also on the 17th, police search the Tempe Town Lake using sonar based on the idea that she may have tried to walk somewhere and something went wrong. Police obviously want to talk to Fran. They track him down on the 17th. They find Fran hanging missing person posters for Adrien in a park. He's actively trying to find her with her family. They ask him to come to the station and talk to them, and he agrees right away. They describe him as being really up front. In later reporting, police say he seemed devastated and wanted to give them whatever they needed to help. He tells police his timeline of events from that night. He says after he dropped her off near her apartment, he headed back home. Once he heard that she made it, he went to bed. He said he was woken up by some of the calls and texts. He lets police go through his phone, look at his messages. There's one from 4 43 a.m. that was from Adrian that said she was coming over. So she had told her roommates that she was headed to France at 3:30, 3:45. Then the wreck happens because she needed a minute to regroup.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Well, that or if she's been calling him and he's gone to sleep, so he's not answering, I can see why one she kept doing it, but finally just texts and said, hey, no, because now she's like, why isn't he picking up? Why is he mad at me now? So let me just go over there. Yeah. So I can see why that time frame is longer.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Because she was probably trying to call him, tell him she just popped both their tires, too. I know.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

After that 4 43 a.m. text, the calls and texts to him stopped. No, the search didn't find any signs of her. Early on, police say they had no witnesses, no suspects, very little information. It was trying and frustrating for detectives to not find more quicker. Police realized they should have processed the car. They get it back from Adrian's family on the 18th. And like I said, they looked at the pictures, saw what was in there. At least they had taken those. We never find the phone. They go through everything they can from her phone records. They realized there was a call made about 25 minutes before that last text to Fran. At 4:20 a.m., Adrien made a call to a cab company. It's this local company that's family owned. Investigators want to talk to whoever Adrien talked to. They obviously want to talk to the driver, who will call Tom as soon as possible. But he is on his way to the Grand Canyon. He is driving a group up there. For whatever reason, they decide it's better to talk to him sooner rather than wait till they can have him in. So they set up a phone call with Tom, his father, who owns the company, and with detectives. Now, can you imagine being in that cab, getting a ride up to the Grand Canyon?

SPEAKER_01 25:15

And your driver needs to get on a phone call with the police to talk about his ride from that morning or the previous day.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Yeah, a few days ago about a missing girl. And oh, he was probably the last one to see her. Yeah. Yeah. On the Unresolved series, they talk about this call. Tom says, yes, he talked to Adrian that morning. He agreed to meet her at an AMP on the corner of Hardy and University.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Hardy and University. Can you picture it? I feel like I've been there.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

University goes this way.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

I know I'm like Kyrene, and we've got yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Okay, yeah. I do know where that's at.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

So he's gonna pick her up at AMP. It's just a few blocks away from her place. When he spoke to her, Tom had told Adrian that it would take him a little bit of time to get there. He was finishing up another ride and he couldn't pick her up for about 30 minutes. She agreed.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Oh, that's that's the AMPM that okay, yeah, I know exactly which one that is. That's like a major one right by Mill Avenue. Oh. But one street up. And it's always been a sketchy one to be around. Like I did not like stopping at that one if I needed to. Interesting. Without it, and especially as a female, I preferred to go there in groups. So I'd go there when I was with people. I didn't like stopping there if I was especially late at night. I didn't like stopping there if I was by myself. You would definitely get there was always people hanging out there, and you would definitely get accosted, at least by somebody saying something to you. So yeah, I'm like, okay, so at that time of morning.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Or 35 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

I honestly don't remember. I mean, I'm sure they were 24 hours. That actually makes a lot of sense. I never probably went there lit let that time of day morning, but I just know in the normal bar hours, it was not my favorite gas station to stop at. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

I couldn't picture that one.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

I literally it took me a minute. It's by the oreganos, but oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

Okay. Yep. I know the one. Yeah. Yeah. So Tom said he couldn't get there for 30 minutes. He was finishing up another ride. Adrian agreed and said she would meet him over there. Tom tells police he called Adrian to confirm that she was still in need of a ride as he was getting close. She said she wasn't there yet, but would head over that way. I'm not sure if she was waiting at her apartment.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Does his cab have logs? Doesn't seem like it. So it's almost not, it's kind of a it's not yellow cab. Okay. Nope.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Tom gets to the location. He doesn't see Adrian. He calls. He doesn't get an answer. He gets out of the cab, walks around, smokes, said he waited about 10 minutes. He tried calling again a few more times, got no answer. After waiting, he decided she must have changed her mind or found another ride. So he leaves. Investigators can see the call logs match up with his version of events. They also go to the AMPM and get the surveillance from that night, and it matches up with his story. They had good footage, and fortunately, detectives got to it in time. Detectives are kind of feeling like this is a lead that they can cross off their list. Everything seems to match up. But a couple days later, they get a really interesting phone call. One of the passengers that was in the cab on their way to the Grand Canyon says that Tom seemed really stressed out by this call. You can imagine it would be stressful to be interviewed because you're one of the last people to have contact with someone who's gone missing. But they said it felt like more than that. And they tell police that before they got to the Grand Canyon, after the call ended, Tom pulled over and started going through the trunk.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

The passenger says, Tom pulled over on the freeway to get into the trunk of his car while he has clients in the back seat.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Yeah. I kind of get the feeling that it was more like on that way to Williams or one of the.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

That's even worse. Like you pull him on the shoulder over there.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Way worse. Way worse.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Yeah, that's like a two is on a two-lane highway. I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

I haven't been there for a few years, but yeah. The passenger says that Tom is muttering to himself, and out of the trunk he pulls out what they swear was a hacksaw. What? I wish everybody could see your face. Yes, a hacksaw. According to People Investigates, next, Tom said something like, hmm, how did that get in there? Now, to add to this layer of bizarre, they say Tom seemed genuinely confused on how that got in the trunk. But okay, then why are you looking in the trunk at all?

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Why do you need to stop your clients? Like that's that right there is super strange.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Super strange.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

You have people in your car.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Do this after you take them where you're going.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

There's nothing that's going to make a difference right this second, other than now they can call and tell investigators about what happened. The call is strange enough that investigators put Tom under surveillance. They asked him to come take a polygraph, which he declines. It doesn't seem like Tom has a criminal record, but his dad had had some run-ins with the law in years past. So possibly his dad had told him not to take a polygraph. I'm not sure. Tom also gets a lawyer pretty quick in this who advises him not to talk anymore. Investigators do not like this. So they get warrants for his apartment, his cab, and his DNA. They have him come in to sit for an actual interview and to collect the DNA from a buckle swath. And the footage from this is so strange. You can also see this in the unrecovered series. Tom isn't wearing a shirt or shoes. He's handcuffed. While he waits, he starts playing kind of like a hacky sack with a red solo cup. It's all so bizarre. When investigators come in, how old is he? 30s, I think.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Not he's not 18.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

He's not on the spectrum.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

That I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

He seems really angry at being there. He acts like police are picking on him by even bringing him in for any kind of questioning. When they try to get the DNA sample, they have the warrant for he yells at them, he calls them names, he screams at them that he hates all of them. They get his DNA anyways and let him go. They don't have much of a reason to keep him under surveillance. So that stops not long after this interview. Two weeks later, they get another tip. A woman calls. Her cousin does maintenance for the apartment that Tom lives in. She tells them this cousin heard a woman screaming from inside Tom's apartment. And to her cousin, it sounded like whoever was in the apartment was trying to muffle the screams. The maintenance worker had music on. He turned it down to kind of see if what he was hearing, he was really hearing. He said as he did this, the music inside the apartment was turned way up, like max volume. Now, this wasn't reported right away. We know this is weeks after Adrian has gone missing. We don't know if it was the same day or not.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Oh, so the tip came in two weeks later, but it could have been before then. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

And it was two weeks after they had gotten the DNA from Tom. So it could have even been four weeks after Adrian went missing.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

But it wasn't like it happened yesterday. I guess the maintenance worker is hanging out with his cousin, this woman that called in, telling her this story, like, oh, this is weird. And she's like, um, we should call the police. And so she did. Police go to Tom's apartment. He tells them to get lost, and they don't have any warrant. While they're trying to get one, they try to reach back out to this woman who called, and they weren't able to. So this just kind of sits. They were never able to, as far as I know, contact her again.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Okay, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Over time, as the obvious places were searched and no new sightings came in, the case seemed to collapse into one short, terrifying reality. Whatever happened to Adrian likely happened between her apartment and that convenience store. Investigators have described this as a case with a crowded social environment, lots of people at the party, lots of potential contacts, but still a critical lack of direct observation. By early July, there was a reward being offered for information leading to her safe return. This started at$10,000 and was raised to$20,000, which is where it sits today. A sizable monsoon hit the Phoenix area on July 21st, 2013. A meteorologist with the county flood control agency explained that stream gauges recorded roughly five hours of runoff and measured around four feet of water depth and over 600 cubic feet per second in some of the washes in the area. And this was a weather event that sent water everywhere. It was powerful enough to move debris, change terrain, wash cars away. It was one of the biggest ones that Phoenix had seen in a while. A couple weeks later, on August 6, 2013, a man was walking in a desert wash in Apache Junction and discovered what appeared to be human remains. This is one of those moments in a case where answer and devastation arrive in the same package. Investigators had spent weeks hoping that they could find Adrian alive. Now they're looking at a recovery scene in this desert wash about 40-ish miles away from where Adrian was last seen. The remains were located in an area of Weeks Wash near Lost Dutchman Boulevard and State Route 88. The remains were badly decomposed. On August 9th, they performed an autopsy, and on August 15th, they got the news that everyone had been dreading. DNA confirmed that this was Adrian.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Are there any studies that have been done that can show based on the storm how far something could have traveled?

SPEAKER_00 37:21

It doesn't seem like it. It seems like they still don't know how far it traveled.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

She could have fled up and dumped or the rain waters could have pushed her down from the wash.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

They did say that how decomposed she was was consistent with being in the elements for almost including water? That's the tough part. Okay. Because it seems like it was dry up until July 21st or whatever. And then it moved everything.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Which I would think, I mean, they still said decomposed skeleton. I would think that level of water would have washed everything away from the bones and just left the skeletal remains, but it sounds like there was still It seems like it was very skeletal, and as awful as this is, it had already started separating, right? Yeah. No, I would assume that. Yeah. I'm just wondering. Because it makes it sound like that they believe she was washed down the wash.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Yes. So they don't know where the starting point would have been.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Which means.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

But they can confirm that she was washed down the wash, not just dumped in the place they found her.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

That is what they've put out. Okay. That they don't believe that's the dumping spot.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Right. It's a different dumping spot. And then the rain, the storm pushed her down further. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

So then they say And this cab does no GPS on it.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

It doesn't seem like it. They got a warrant for the cab.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Ooh, what about his cell phone? Is there any indication that they tracked his cell phone records to show locations or pings?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

His phone was turned off for the 12 hours following that shift.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Oh. How convenient.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

And in looking at all of his phone records, that was not normal. Yeah. He didn't usually drive all night and then shut his phone off for 12 hours to sleep before working again. It had never happened before.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay, Tom.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

It And Tom himself has no prior criminal anything.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

No. Isn't that so strange?

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Yeah. But his father did.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Yes. It sounds minor. Okay, so nothing to do with a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Nothing to do with violence against women.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Not that it is publicly available. Okay. Yeah. And I'm not sure how long it took them to get the phone information. It always comes up later.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Did they investigate him as a person of interest? Yes. Did they interview friends of his or acquaintances or people that could give them a picture that they've that I did not see. So that they may have, and we just don't know. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

They went through his cab. They did not find any evidence that Adrian had been in there. Was it also no.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

It had not been cleaned and it was it wasn't as messy as his apartment was, since he's having other people come in, but it had not been cleaned recently. And his apartment was apparently a disaster.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Well, so again, you're driving clients around in a car that's I would think that would hurt your Yelp reviews. I don't know. I guess they're not yellow cab. You're paying for what getting, I guess. But that seems like odd that you're providing a customer service and not keeping the place that your customers are in clean.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

Yeah. I think they were probably very prepared for it to have been cleaned. Yeah. And to have that be the reason. Right. But no. The hacksaw was never found.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Well, of course not. He probably threw that out on that highway up there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Or into the Grand Canyon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

That it was Exactly. Why is this here?

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Yeah. In 2022, in Unresolved Reporting, investigators did say that they suspected Adrienne was buried in a shallow grave upstream and that the heavy flooding had moved her remains to where they were ultimately recovered. They noted that that was a key investigative problem. They did not have an identifiable crime scene in Tempe. And when she was recovered in Apache Junction, they didn't know where any of the original site was. So they're missing critical forensic context there. Also, without knowing the distance, and I'm sure a lot was washed away with that storm as well. The autopsy findings were summarized in ways that show just how little forensic answers there were. They reported no obvious signs of trauma or serious injury. They noted that the cranium and the top two vertebrae were missing. They also noted that there were no tool marks or evidence of any intentional decapitation or anything like that. The Phoenix News Times later reported the autopsy did not determine a cause of death and indicated that her entire body was not recovered, which has to be awful for her family.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Does that mean that she's still out there? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Investigators have said publicly through reporting that they've chased leads, followed down tips, re-interviewed people who were around Adrian that night. They have also been clear about something else. They still have no official suspects and obviously have never arrested anyone. They had a few people that were at the top of their people of interest without calling them that really list. They have repeatedly acknowledged the uncomfortable statistic that oftentimes violence comes from someone close to the victim. In the unresolved reporting, one detective put it plainly nobody has been ruled out, quote, even Fran, while also describing him as cooperative in interactions all over the years. And it also doesn't sound like her parents, her dad specifically, thought he could be involved at all. But they did have the relationship. Tension. Investigators and friends described disagreement about exclusivity in their relationship. As of 2020, it's said he's living in Mexico and he didn't respond to requests to participate on the unresolved project.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

I don't think it was him.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

I don't either. I think he probably unfortunately carries some guilt.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

But I don't believe I had anything to do with that.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

I mean, but I think he went to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

I mean, I put my phone on silent and don't I mean eventually you will start to hear the vibration of call after call after call after call, but I've told Mila, you gotta do the find my iPhone if you need something in the middle of the night because I'm not waking up. Investigators did discover with Tom, he was their next person at the top of the list, that his cell phone was powered down for those 12 hours. They had the tips from a maintenance worker's cousin. They also had the tips from the people who were in his cab. But even with everything, the DNA sample, searching the cab, the apartment, all of his phone records, nothing has connected him to Adrian's disappearance. In fact, he has said to media later that he felt like his life was permanently damaged by the attention from this case.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

The Tom guy said that.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Investigators are still looking for Adrian's cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

Well, I'm like, then take the lie detector, buddy, and get yourself exonerated.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

It's kind of simple.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

And he's not even considered a suspect because they can't find anything really to tie him, but at the same time, yeah, you knew where she was, even though she was never on camera at the AMPM, like she never showed up. Yeah. He still had a general idea of where she was coming from.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

If she was out walking, and was his cab like identifiable, like it said cab on it somewhere. So like so. Yeah. So maybe on the I mean, was he on the camera at AMP?

SPEAKER_00 46:14

He was. And they see him stop, they see him make a call, they see him get out of the cab, smoke, wait, call a couple more times, and get in and drive away.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Okay. Did they say what direction he drove? Could it he have even seen her?

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Sounds like they saw him drive towards where home would be and that he was done for the night.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

And his phone powers off not long after that. So whether he started driving that way and changed his mind or really just absolutely had nothing to do with it, it doesn't sound like they can really tell.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Yeah, I'm with that, I'm surprised that he isn't willing to take a lie detector to other than his behavior is still extremely odd.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

Right. It is. It's very odd. This is interesting. In 2021, Tempe Police assigned a new detective to the case. He took the work of reviewing all the old steps, chasing new leads, and one step that the original detective, Alan Akey, described was gathering cell phone data from the area where Adrian vanished and also from the area where her remains were found, looking for a phone number that appeared in both places. But then came a problem that frankly sounds unbelievable. The detective said that they had never been able to get records from T-Mobile, despite repeated requests that he described as legal requests, even warrant-based. That is the only time he says in his career a company did not provide something based on a warrant. The reporting says that T-Mobile did not respond to requests for comment about it. If you're trying to build this investigative timeline for cell phone presence in two locations, missing one major carrier's data set is a massive blind spot.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Yeah. I'm how can they not be compelled if there's a warrant?

SPEAKER_00 48:16

I don't get it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

And why would they not want to?

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Right. You don't want to try to help solve this. It doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Well, and you could even heck, if the warrant is, you don't even have to provide the names of the owners and unless you could do the research yourself to say, yes, here's the number that was involved. You don't have to divulge anyone else's information.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 48:37

That's again odd.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

Yeah. And I wonder because that's from 2021, 2022. I doubt they still have records 10 years later. Probably not. But it doesn't sound like they ever got them.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

That's crazy. Because again, I get wanting to protect your other client's privacy. Yeah. But you could then look and see is there a matching number in these two locations?

SPEAKER_00 49:06

Right. For one day.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

And then provide that to the police to again to maintain the integrity of all the other numbers on that list. That seems weird.

SPEAKER_00 49:17

Yeah. Agreed. Now, one other possibility that Tempe Police considered was the possibility that an accused serial killer could be responsible for Adrian's disappearance. They stated they were not referring to Brian Patrick Miller as a suspect, who was also known as the zombie hunter, which is a lame ass name he gave himself. But they said they had not closed the door on the possibility. Do you know the zombie hunter? Yeah from yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

From I was trying to think if the MO matches not really.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

Because he used knife, and they should be able to see that at least. Also, most of his were earlier on. Yeah. And I guess when he was originally arrested, he had a really good friend who did not believe that he could be responsible for this. They were part of the steampunk group. And almost felt like they're targeting him because of his alternative lifestyle. Right, right. He started doing a deep dive on this guy's stuff to prove to himself. As he was doing that, he noticed in social media that Brian Patrick Miller was in the same general area that Adrian went missing from on that night. And also had posted the next morning about a bike ride out to Apache Junction.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

You don't just take a bike ride to AJ from Tempe.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

No.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

That's and I would say almost impossible.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

I believe that it was like a drive and then he was gonna bike out there.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Early morning sunrise.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

That would be more plausible because I know there's trails out there.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

But still.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Yeah. So this friend called police and said, hey, you might want to look into him. Investigators did. In their view, there are things that are circumstantial, yes, but they did say that there was information that didn't fit the way that he did things in other cases. Specifically, like Shannon pointed out, the MO, the physical evidence of a knife being used. They also pulled his specific cell phone data. It does indicate that he was in Tempe, but not like at the same time as when Adrian vanished. And also his signal did not show in Apache Junction where her remains were found. However, in Apache Junction ever, there's no proof that she was put there right away.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

Yeah. And he posted that he was out there for his bike ride.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

So and just because your phone isn't there doesn't mean you're not there.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

But I don't believe they've ever seriously considered him as a suspect. It is an interesting tie-in, though. As of today, the official public posture remains. Adrian's case is unsolved. I believe they still call it a suspicious death instead of a homicide. But there is a$20,000 reward for information leading to identification, arrest, and conviction of the person responsible for her death. Investigators and reporting in past years have repeated the same aching reality. This was a short timeline with a short walking route in a busy city. And we have CCTV, we have cell phone data, and yet somehow this case is still unsolved. In 2025, Newsweek reported on renewed attention to the reward and quoted a Tempe police department spokesperson saying the department remained committed to getting justice in cold cases. And they specifically included Adrian's. Cases like this get solved when one person, maybe someone who was at that party, maybe someone who was driving down Hardy that morning, maybe someone who heard a confession or something that didn't sit right later, maybe someone who knows why her phone went dark at 507 when they finally decide to speak up. If someone out there does have information, the FBI asks that you call 1-800, call FBI, or contact the Tempe Police Department at 480-350-8311. Until someone explains what happened in those final minutes, this remains the unsolved murder of Adrian Celeste Salinas.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Vanished Voices. Every listen helps carry these stories further and louder into the world. To read our blog, explore related resources, or view episode notes, head over to vanished voicespodcast.com. You'll also find us on social media, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all under at Vanished Voices Pod. We'd love to connect and hear your thoughts. Removed by what we share, please rate and review the podcast and help us grow this community by spreading the word. You can stream Vanished Voices on all streaming platforms wherever you get your podcast. And as always, refuse to let these voices vanish.

SPEAKER_00 54:50

Bye. Bye.