From Breaking Silence to Breaking Bad

I was resolved to keep the subject of Karen Jannise far from discussions that had already dominated the missing persons search for Lauren Colvin Thompson. However the efforts on Karen’s part or that of third party proxies to malign my personal and professional reputation and worse, undermine the efforts by Lauren’s parents and myself to bring Lauren home, has made clear that the only way to put to rest the chaos is to give her the spotlight one last time.

This decision was cemented by her most recent antics involving an attempt to knowingly submit a false complaint to a state agency that I was operating as a false PI company. This is a common tactic used by cyber trolls or the overzealous who wish to shut down the work of investigative journalists digging deeper than one prefers. This attempt, like the ones before her, of course failed.

However, it seemed quite clear that the soft and patient approach would not lead to her eventual fading from the scene but instead invite further escalation until she is given the attention and focus demanded.

Hopefully putting this out will at last also put rest the drama and chaos resulting from Karen's previous involvement and we can all at last put focus back where it belongs; finding Lauren and bring those responsible for her disappearance to justice.

That said, I give you the curious tale of Karen Jannise, a self proclaimed psychic/ investigator who went from the good deed of breaking the fearful silence of a small town to becoming someone even more harmful and dangerous than the one they once hoped she would help capture.

Background

In late August of 2019 I was asked by friends and family of Lauren Colvin Thompson to help with a missing person investigation out of Panola County Texas that was at a stand still. Lauren went missing on January 10, 2019. I was told that my history of covering controversial stories and getting information from sources others could not find or feared to approach was what lead to me being sought out.

I was reluctant at first as I felt such cases were too heart wrenching and also too chaotic due to the types of people and politics I have seen these types of cases draw in. However, after taking a few moment to review the case as requested I found many disturbing factors that made me feel for the family even more. I saw the mess the case became and how more hopeless resolution was the more it sped in the direction it was heading.

Local law enforcement was all out of leads according to the Sheriff's office. The victim was involved with people and habits that made too many judge her too quickly. The disappearance occurred in an area suspected by many to be part of a drug distribution and human trafficking pipeline in and out of the United States' southern borders. The mounting tension was further increased by small town interrelationships leading to possibly hasty claims conflict of interest, and what was seen by the local general public as insincere investigative efforts by law enforcement.

The end result was a county becoming more and more polarized. On one side were those that believed that local law enforcement was part of a systemic corrupt operation protecting the drug and human trafficking hub obfuscated by the vast and lush area that made up the Rock Hill community where Lauren disappeared deeper and deeper into while apparently running aimlessly further away from her companions. The other side, an outraged populace who see the area being plagued by local street thugs and drugs dealers and the local men and women who make up the thin blue line laboring day and night to stand between their fellow community members and the growing threat of drugs and violent crime plaguing the county's future.

The Day Lauren Colvin Thompson Disappeared

According to reports and eye witness statements, on the afternoon of January 10, 2019, Lauren Thompson and three other companions made their way into the rural Rock Hill area to fish and hang out at the home of Ricky Briggs, one of the three other companions. According to witness statements, throughout the day, Lauren had been acting scared and nervous and complained of being stalked and scared for her life. Soon after, Lauren unexpectedly began running away from her companions and deeper into Rock Hill's beautiful yet untamed terrain. While running Lauren was on the phone with 911 operators for about 20 minutes. She seemed to be desperately running from and pleading with unknown persons with firearms chasing and shooting at her.

The disturbing 911 call was preceded earlier in the day by a disturbing call to her mother Torie Colvin where she attempted to speak with her kids to tell them she loved them. However they were asleep. According to Torie Colvin, Lauren sounded distressed but would not go into detail why but instead would only offer obscure apologies for life past decisions and her current predicament. The call ended with a vow to never do drugs again if she ever got out of "this" and a plea to tell her father that she loved him and she was sorry.

After her later call with 911 abruptly ended, Lauren was never seen or heard from again.

Over time, law enforcement would say there were no more leads to follow at this point and that furthermore there was no reason he could see to assume foul play. That second claim would mark the beginning of a slowly polarizing dialog between law enforcement, the community and Lauren's family. Then came conflicting claims of lackluster search efforts compounded by conflicting claims that third party professionals who volunteered to help search the vast terrain were turned away by the Panola Sheriff's Department.

Breaking The Silence

Fast forward to August of 2019. After talking with Lauren's family over the phone I agreed to cover the case and do what I can to support the family's efforts to help both filter out the chaos that was plaguing the county and this case as well as offer what insight and assistance I could to help breath new life into the case while pushing it in a more productive direction.

I was also introduced to Karen Jannise who since around May of 2019 had been assisting the Colvins and apparently operating as an investigator under the license of a private investigator I could never get the name of. To her credit, Karen seemed to have been prolific in getting many reluctant people in the county to open up and talk to her and give tips and insights on the local drug trade. Many claimed to know about corrupt cops, protected drug dealers and unchecked informants. Karen was clearly overwhelmed and I could see the stress and pressure of the case getting to her. This was further aggravated by what she claimed was interference by bitter people she had pursued in another case in Port Arthur, Texas where she was called into as a "psychic". This case and the chaotic debacle that it became would eventually gain her national publicity.

Breaking Reality

As I began to work with and get to know Karen, I observed how she would easily go from a determined Nancy Drew type pursing all the clues she can to a frantic Nancy Grace type calling people out for serious crimes based on a logic only she seemed to understand. She would also spiral in and out of states of paranoia, utter depression and bitter anger. Karen would also became more and more fixated on a mysterious cooperative of corrupt cops stalking and hacking her and crooked agents trying to kill her. The names of people she said were involved in this vast conspiracy were drawn from not just people in Lauren's case but also from other cases she apparently worked as "psychic" over the years for other families and/or agencies.

Meanwhile as Karen was busy both preaching and lamenting her ever evolving story of "one girl forced to take down a small corrupt town" (her words, not mine) all the tips were still coming in to her email and Facebook inboxes and handfuls of previous ones seemed to be uncatalogued and untouched. I finally asked her to let allow me to quickly perform forensic dumps of her Email and Facebook accounts and let me utilize my tools and training in intelligence gathering and analysis to quickly gather everything relevant and get them cataloged and evaluated. Karen readily agreed. That was when things became clearer for me.

As I listened to recorded witness and informant interviews, processed and read gigabytes of chats and emails I saw disturbing patterns start to emerge. Karen seemed to be fixated on a narrative of corrupts cops running secret drug and human trafficking operations and all led by the Aryan Brotherhood. A narrative I would later discover was carried over from previous cases she had inserted herself into. This narrative seemed to be based on claims made by people who would have no way of knowing such things and their only basis of resentment and police mistrust seemed to be based on past negative interactions with officers who investigated or arrested them in the past. Some had some compelling narratives but for the most part they went unconfirmed by Karen, instead of working the tips and leads, she instead chose to feed these spurious claims and tipster's contact information to an amateur true crime YouTuber named Bridget Peaker who would also work under the moniker, Miss Murder.

Bridget was putting out one vlog after another that would indeed draw more attention to the case however nothing more. The main format and content of these vlogs involved casting spurious accusations against, private citizens, law enforcement officers from multiple agencies (including the Texas Rangers), endanger sources with gratuitous and sometimes money grabbing recordings of calls that many assumed private and not to be aired, and compromised the case by airing statements and details that could have been used by law enforcement to evaluate suspects statements and build stronger cases.

The more I read the back logs of tips and conversations, the more I saw Karen's frustration and self imposed pressure to get results increase to very dangerous levels. The more her attempts to provoke police reaction and more clues via Bridget's instigating vlogs failed, the more willing she seemed to go to even more risky people for help with even more dangerous and eventually criminal tactics.

Breaking Bad

I had to conclude that at this point the real problem with this case was Karen and the one locals were really in danger from were an ad hoc ragtag Scooby gang of freaks and felons she pulled in that, among others, included:

• A multi-convicted pedophile,
• A violent felon who traded graphic stores of female suffering she apparently encountered on past cases to help get him aroused in exchange for tips of local homicidal felons and insights on the murdering mind, and then finally,
• A self-proclaimed claimed activist and advocate operating under an organization called Growth & Development that for decades has been known to operate as a front for one of the most dangerous, drug dealing, criminal organizations known as Gangster Disciples.

The "activist" was named Justin Merfeld who would go on to be arrested for harassing and threatening a couple who were at one point accused of involvement by some locals yet no evidence seemed to exist to show they were even in the area when Lauren disappeared. One of these two was named Scotty Fields who was also a distant relative of the Sheriff's Office assigned case investigator, Lt. Sarah Fields. Ignoring the fact that they were somewhat distant relative and that we are talking about a relatively small community, Karen used this fact to broadcast claims of cover-up and protection of Scotty.

Merfeld proceeded to call and harass Scotty with demands to tell where Lauren was and to admit what he did to her. The more Justin called and texted the more violent and graphic he became and eventually threatened to torture Scotty and his girlfriend until they agreed to tell him what he wanted to know.

After his arrest Karen would publicly claim to not be involved and just as appalled at Merfeld's actions, however private chats would show that not only was this done with her blessing an encouragement but also a knowledge of him doing this for years in other missing person cases.

Then I discovered even older private chats with a man name Earnie House. A man with a violent history whom claimed to have murdered before, know other local murders and apparently obsessed with Karen. An obsession she seemed to encourage. There were disturbing conversations where he would seem to give her tips and insights in exchange for graphic stories and scenes she encountered in past cases of women who were brutally attacked, tortured and killed by sick offenders. He asked her for these stories in an effort to help him get sexually aroused. Earnie claimed that was the only way he could become sexually aroused. Karen acquiesced his sick requests.

She would eventually ask Earnie for help with the Lauren Thompson case. She seemed convinced that Ricky Briggs, a local with a somewhat sordid past and reputation, was involved as he was one of the last people Lauren was seen with. However investigators apparently did not have much to base an arrest on and so Karen made a not so subtle offer to Earnie. She told him that there was a reward for the location of Lauren's whereabouts. She said the award was now at $10,000 dollars. She wanted Earnie to kidnap and torture Ricky Briggs until he gave up the location of Lauren's body, Upon securing the location Karen would give it to the Colvin's (I'm guessing in the form of one of her "visions") then collect the reward money and give Earnie up to $8,000. Earnie agreed to help.

However it would seem that this operation would never be carried out. Either because Earnie came to his senses and backed out or because Ricky Briggs, would not allow him the chance since he soon after died of cancer.

I had enough. I turned over my findings to the Colvins. They went from disoriented to disappointed. I explained the potential liability she presented the case, to themselves, and the danger she was becoming to the community. Karen was subsequently removed from the case and has been crying foul ever since to whomever will listen.

I have since been able to help the Colvins begin to re-establish rapport and communication with law enforcement, build rapport with previous tipsters, develop new local informants, generate new leads, gather reliable and verifiable new evidence and even developed a chief suspect whose previous alibi's I have been able to prove false. More will be said about this in the next article on this case and after law enforcement has had the opportunity to follow up as needed and hopefully secure an arrest in the near future.

Postscript: Breaking The Cycle

In addition to the two previously described insane tactics attempted by Karen, I subsequently found other similar activities involving this case and cases going back years that showed a pattern of her inserting herself in a case, engage in questionable activities, get called out by the people whom once looked to her for help, Karen turn against them, then harass and in some cases publicly accuse them of the very crimes she once promised to help them find closure with.

I turned over a report and evidence package on the above two matters (and others) to the FBI, Texas Rangers, and Panola County Sheriff's Office as deemed appropriate.

There was one such incident that still haunts my thoughts and heart to this day. While putting together my reports for the various agencies, I came across one that seemed the most serious and most disturbing.

I stumbled on a private chat between Justin Merfeld and Karen following his arrest and bail out from the above mentioned harassment charge. In this conversation Justin explained to Karen that while he was questioned he gave them all the information about her he thought they wanted to hear and did it to help sell an image of a repentant and misguided advocate who only wanted to help. But then he also assured her not to worry because its all an act and that he is going to hold the "corrupt cops" accountable. He said he planned to disappear for a time but assured her he would return "when they least expect it" and that he and local allies in the county will have the money needed to get firearms that they would need to go to "war" with Panola County Deputies.

A deeper search into Merfeld's background showed a man with known gang ties and a history of arrests for terrorist threats and assault on law enforcement officers spanning years and multiple states.

I turned over a detailed to intelligence report and supporting evidence to the Texas Fusion Center, FBI, Texas Rangers and especially the Panola Sheriff's Office.

Weeks later I would be informed of a deputy who had just been shot. He would later be publicly identified as Deputy Chris Dickerson. Sources confirmed the shooter fit the profile of the shooters I feared Merfeld would employ, using weapons I suspected they would use. My heart sank to my stomach.

As it stands, we are still learning more about the shooter and his motivations when he ambushed and killed Deputy Dickerson. I dread confirmation that he turn out to be involved with Justin Merfeld or Gangster Disciples. I can only hope if they (Gangster Disciples) were approached they would have had the good sense not too get caught up in one unstable member's vigilante delusions.

Even if it turns out that there was no connection and that this was all coincidence, I am still left with some questions that sometimes keep me up at night:

• Did local law enforcement ever get my warning, either from me or the other agencies I briefed?
• If they did, but for whatever reason had not called in Justin and Karen for questioning yet, did they at the very least put out an advisory?
• If not, will they now?

and the most troubling question

• If, in fact, no advisory was given, would things have been different for Dickerson when he made what he reasonably expected to be a routine traffic stop, if he was given an advisory and had an elevated heads up in the back of his mind?

I suppose we may never know, but I pray he is not the first of more potentially preventable similar tragedies to come.