Missing: North Carolina college grad vanishes after night of celebration
Solve This Crime 03/07/2016 12:50 pm PST
Security video just uncovered by Crime Watch Daily captures the minutes before Kyle Fleischmann disappeared into the darkness in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 9, 2007.
Charlotte is a hip, trendy cosmopolitan city with sweet tea and Southern charm to spare. But just a few blocks away, on the other side of a bridge lies a dark, dangerous park ruled by drug dealers and gangs.
Kyle Fleischmann grew up in Charlotte and knew better than to wander across that bridge, especially late at night.
The 24-year-old had just bought his first condominium on the other side of town, and had landed a nice job as a healthcare recruiter.
Kyle's mom had just been diagnosed with cancer. He and his mom vowed to beat the cancer together. Just days before her first cancer surgery, Kyle took his sister Noelle, his best friend Daniel Scagnelli and his mother Barbara for a special treat to a Dane Cook comedy concert to lift her spirits, on Nov. 8, 2007.
"Kyle was in a great mood that night," said Scagnelli. "Kyle was his normal self, having a good time, happy, jovial, nothing out of the ordinary in terms of his attitude."
After the show Kyle tells his mom that he and some friends are heading to a popular bar in uptown Charlotte, the Buckhead Saloon. It's the last time Barbara has spoken to her son.
Once at the Buckhead Saloon, Scagnelli says, they continue to party.
"Kyle wasn't extremely intoxicated by any means. I'm sure he was feeling pretty good, I know I was personally, but I don't think he'd reached the point where he wasn't aware of his surroundings," said Scagnelli.
It is a work night, so around 1 a.m. Scagnelli closes out his bar tab. He notices Kyle is talking to a cute co-ed.
"Right around then we had the conversation, 'You coming or you staying?' And he was having a good time, he'd connected with some folks, and he was going to stay behind," said Scagnelli.
That was the last time Scagnelli saw his best friend.
Some time in the wee hours of the morning, while everyone else is sleeping, Kyle Fleischmann vanishes.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, spearheaded by Detective J.L. Tuttle, mobilize an exhaustive search.
Daniel Scagnelli creates the first-ever missing persons page on Facebook for Kyle. By morning, 60,000 people are following their search, and hundreds show up to help look for Kyle.
The Fleischmanns also hire a private investigator to help sift through leads. We're calling him "Joe" and hiding his face so he can continue to work undercover.
"I met with them and gathered the information and tried to piece together what exactly happened," said "Joe."
What Joe and detectives piece together is a bizarre timeline of events, and it begins with that cute co-ed Kyle met at the bar.
"There was some videotape we were able to gather from the manager of the Buckhead Saloon, showing Kyle first speaking with the young lady, and then two guys," said Joe. "In the footage it looked like they were in a possible argument or confrontation with Kyle."
Shortly after that "confrontation," surveillance video shows Kyle leaving the Buckhead Saloon around 2:20 a.m.
"He left his debit card and also his jacket at the saloon," said Det. Tuttle.
Maybe Kyle was drunk and forgot his coat and card, but Joe believes he left in a hurry.
"The young lady then leaves and walks out to College Street. Kyle then leaves as well," said Joe. "Kyle and the young lady then end up speaking as they're walking across the street."
Minutes later another camera captures Kyle now heading down College Street toward Fuel Pizza.
A cashier there who claims to have a photographic memory tells Joe that Kyle definitely came in for pizza at 2:20.
"He said 'I know that kid was in there. I know him, I know what he ordered,'" said Barbara Fleischmann.
"As soon as he told my investigator that Kyle had a pizza with everything on it, I knew it was him," said Dick Fleischmann, Kyle's father.
Kyle is never spotted on another surveillance camera throughout the entire city. So detectives begin digging into Kyle's phone records. It turns out Kyle made eight calls, the first at 2:18 a.m. to sister Noelle, the final call to his roommate at 3:29 a.m. But he never left a single message.
Using cell-tower pings, investigators begin tracking the location of those eight calls. They do not like what they find.
"Starts walking down College Street, which turns into Davidson Street, which is a pretty bad area once you're on the other side of the bridge," said Joe.
By 4 a.m. Kyle's phone is dead, the last ping was mere feet from that bridge leading to the park.
With hope of finding Kyle fading, the family reaches out to an elite search-dog team to try to track down Kyle. But what will they uncover?
The police and the Fleischmanns still have faith that one day someone will step forward with information that will lead them to Kyle.
Someone out there knows what happened to Kyle Fleischmann, and there's currently a $50,000 reward for information that helps solve this cold case.
