TUMWATER: Logan Schiendelman
A teenager from Tumwater woke up one morning, told his grandmother he had an epiphany, and then seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. He left his phone and wallet behind and his car was spotted several times on I-5, sometimes parked on the side of the road, but eventually drifting across several lanes of traffic. On this episode of Washed Away, I’m gonna tell you about one of the strangest missing persons cases that Washington state has seen in a long time. What the heck happened to Logan Schiendelman?
Sources for this episode include: Charley Project, Hide and Seek, The Chronicle, KIRO, and Wikipedia.
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There’s a Facebook group dedicated to Logan’s disappearance where friends and family post updates, you can find the page here.
Transcript-
Ashley:
This podcast covers cold cases, which means there will be talk of murder, suicide, missing persons, mental illness, and many other sensitive subjects involved with true crime listener discretion is advised. A teenager from Tumwater woke up one morning, told his grandmother he had an epiphany and then seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. He left behind his phone and wallet, and soon his car was spotted several times on I-5, sometimes parked on the side of the road, but eventually drifting across several lanes of traffic. On this episode of Washed Away, I’m going to tell you about one of the strangest missing persons cases that Washington state has seen in a long time. What happened to Logan Schiendelman?
James Baysinger:
That's the plan. That's the goal… is to figure out, you know, if he's out there or where he's at, if something happened to him and who's responsible, you know, that's the biggest one is who's responsible, but then being able to bring Logan home
Ashley:
Logan was born on June 27th 1996 and was only 19 years old when he went missing in 2016. Family members described Logan as quiet and sensitive. He was about 6 feet tall, mixed race, and allergic to peanuts. He was a star athlete in high school and he briefly attended Washington State University. At the time of his disappearance he was living with his Grandmother and half sister in Tumwater, which is only a couple of hours away from where James Baysinger lives. He’s the host of a podcast called Hide and Seek and for season 2 he’s been investigating Logan’s disappearance. For season 1, he covered Nancy Moyer’s disappearance which you heard about on the last episode.
James:
I felt with Logan's case, I wanted to try to focus on a male this time. Um, because I think it, it opens up kind of like a different can of worms. You're dealing with the same mystery. It's the same type of trying to figure out, you know, what happened to this individual. But when you're dealing with a male like Logan who was 19 years old and a fit young male, good looking. And I, you know, it has a different type of, uh, mystery to it at times that you have to kind of filter through, obviously with the way he went missing and his car, being abandoned on an I-5 was very just, I took an interest into that with just how bizarre it is
Ashley:
On May 20th, 2016 - several witnesses reported seeing either Logan or his car on I-5. First a caller spotted Logan and two white men standing by Logan’s car, which was parked along the shoulder of southbound I-5 near Exit 95. The hood was up so it was assumed they were having car trouble. Later that day, three more callers reported seeing Logan’s car on I-5 but this time it was drifting across several lanes of traffic, with no one in the driver’s seat. Another caller claims to have seen a white man jump out of the passenger side of the car and run into the woods. Eventually the car, a black Chrysler Sebring, hit the concrete median and came to a stop. When the car was recovered, it still had gas in it and was running fine. Logan’s driver's license, wallet, and cell phone were all still inside but he was nowhere to be found. A sketch was eventually released of one of the men spotted near Logan’s vehicle but it isn’t much to look at… those two men that weren’t Logan, have never been identified, right?
James:
No, never been, never been found or identified. Um, the sketch is of the male who was standing near the driver's side door. He's got a very, very unique, uh, look to him is what the witness said when she, we were talking and she said, think of Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber. She said, that's the haircut he had. And, but he had a strange outfit on, which was like a shirt that was a little short on him. So you could see some stomach and he had some capris on, it was just a different, you know, style, I guess. But she said, that's why he stuck out-he stood out to me.
Ashley:
The sightings saying that like, there's no one in the car. And so like someone sent the car just like across a few lanes. I just, I can't make sense of that at all. Unless it was an accident because I mean, he could have hit another car, could have hit a person, like you're drawing so much attention to that car. Right. And if you're doing something nefarious in the woods nearby, like, I don't understand why you would do it.
James:
Yeah, no, it doesn't make sense. Right? If you're, if you're trying to get away with something, why would you draw more attention to yourself and possibly even injure yourself? You know, you being in Logan's car or seen near Logan's car and in an accident with Logan's car. You know, the first thing that people are going to do is come question you, why do you have this car once he's been reported missing? But that's why to me, I'm just like, I don't think that the car running into traffic was on purpose. I think it was, it was an error by whoever's responsible, but you have one testimony of, you know, two callers who say, we didn't see anybody in the car. And then you got on the opposite side of I-5 going North, you have a truck driver who says, yeah, I saw a white male jump out of the car, went across four lanes. And what's odd is he says he didn't jump up to the driver's side door. He says, he jumped out of the passenger side door.
Ashley:
The whole car scenario truly is the most bizarre part of Logan’s case for me. There are so many questions. Who were these men? Why haven’t they come forward? What happened with the car, ya know was it an accident or did they send the car across a few lanes of I-5 as some sort of diversion? I don’t know. And if those unidentified men did something to Logan… why? What was the motive? If it was a robbery or a car jacking, why leave his wallet or phone behind? If the men intended to harm Logan, again why draw so much attention to yourself with the car? Something I learned while researching this case is that the area Logan lived in has been known to have issues with drugs. If you google Tumwater drug bust … here are just a few of the articles that will pop up: “Narcotics task force seizes 30 pounds of meth in Tumwater” “Searches in Tumwater and Rochester turn up 54 thousand dollars worth of drugs” “3 arrested in Tumwater and Olympia for heroin, meth, cocaine operations” - is it possible that drugs were a motive in Logan’s disappearance? Honestly, I haven’t found any evidence to support that and the only drug reported to be used by Logan was marijuana, which became legal in Washington State in 2012, 4 years before Logan went missing. He’s been gone for almost 5 years now which will make his case an official no body homicide situation… something I talked about a bit on the Nancy Moyer episode. But hitting a certain date doesn’t make it so, the detectives have to be the ones to make that call-
James:
From the first season I learned that they don't DNA test, unless it's been categorized as a crime. And a missing person isn't a crime yet. So like Nancy's case, we did, we dealt with in season one with Logan's case in season two, the period of time that needs to go by before they can title a case, a no body homicide needs to be five years. So once you get to that, five-year mark, um, obviously with no bank activity, nothing, uh, showing that there's a possibility that you're alive, they will then determine and recategorize your case as a no body homicide that's when they can start the DNA testing with Logan's car. The only thing that they did was just take latent prints, um, which they came back with nothing when they dusted for prints. Yeah. They, I know Ginny still has a car, but it's been driven by other family members at this point. I don't know if it would just, I don't know if they would get anything from it. Um, even if they found something of his in there, it was, his car could have, even if it was blood, for example. So whether Frawley, detective Frawley chooses to do so, I don't know. I want him to, so we can start, you know, because there's another level of resources that you can use once it's been declared a no body homicide.
Ashley:
James mentioned a couple names that I haven’t quite explained yet. Frawley is Detective Frank Frawley who works for Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and is responsible for Logan’s case. Frawley has stated that quote “I have no reason to believe he's been killed and I have no reason to believe he's alive.” End quote, talking about Logan of course, so we’ll have to wait and see what he decides in May when this case hits the 5 year mark. Ginny is Logan’s grandmother. She’s the one who reported him missing and he was living with her at the time. Logan had a complicated relationship with some of his family and didn’t have a relationship with his father, but had begun reaching out to his paternal relatives not long before he went missing. Did he run away to live with his dad? Not likely. James actually looked into that and Logan’s dad didn’t even realize he had a son. Ginny waited a little longer than what most people probably would to report Logan missing because she thought he was with his Mom, who Ginny doesn’t really have a relationship with. When she last saw her grandson it was in the morning before work on May 19th and he told her that he had an epiphany. Logan's grandma said that he had an epiphany. The last time that she spoke to him, what do you think he meant by that? I know he had some weird family stuff going on and he had left school not too long ago. I don't know. Do you give a lot of weight to that?
James:
That's hard because I, I think that he was honestly going, you know, take the take his disappearance out of it. I still think that he was going through things and trying to figure out who he was. You know, he, he, his dad was never really involved in his life. He'd had some sort of bad, um, experience at a party where he felt like his friends weren't there for him. And, you know, he was 19 at the time. I mean like, like a lot of 19 year olds, you can try to figure out where are you going in life? And he didn't come from a house where you would find you would call it normal. He was being raised by grandma. Mom also lives not far from there, but why, you know, why doesn’t he live with mom or why isn't my dad here? I think he was just going through some things and religion was one of them.
James:
So I think that the epiphany part, the conversation he has, I think it had a little bit more to do with Logan, just trying to figure himself out. And maybe some things dawned on him where he felt like he had a better understanding about who he was and you know, and the epiphany could, could be, could be, could have to do something when it comes, you know, when it comes to his disappearance and possibly him, what if he was getting involved with something where he felt like this is the path of life I want, I'm taking my life down and realizing it now. Um, but anything that's connected to him committing suicide, I don't think that conversation had anything to do with it, uh, or that it’s related.
Ashley:
I'm trying to like, remember back when I was 19, like the kind of things that I would say and like what I was going through at school and family and everything, and like, it's so hard to tell if that was just innocent or if it was a clue of something else, but it's so hard to know.
James:
Right. I mean, yeah. I mean, like you said to go back to when you were 19, how- did you know what you wanted to do for a living? No, you know, you're living paycheck to paycheck and trying to figure out life and he had left college. So, I mean, I think he's just like lots of people at that age. You're just trying to figure things out. And he had a little bit more, um, his cards were dealt a little differently growing up,
Ashley:
It’s been reported that Logan was maybe more withdrawn than usual before he went missing, before he had his “epiphany” which was either about family or religion or just life in general. As far as I know that’s really the only sort of evidence that Logan was maybe suffering from any mental illness or distress, but so far - that’s the angle the police seem to have taken. So you mentioned, um, the suicide theory. Do police still think that Logan left on his own? is that I, I think that's on like the Charley Project page that they don't suspect foul play.
James:
Yeah. They, they definitely still think that there's a possibility that he chose to leave on his own. The case doesn't need to continue to search for somebody who's chosen to leave, obviously. But with Logan's case, I don't think that that's the case. I don't think he chose to leave, but detectives do… detective Frawley does still think that there's a strong possibility that he chose to leave and that there's not a crime with that, you know, and there's no crime i choosing to want to leave and start a new life. Um, but we've made it very clear. We'll we'll be making it very clear to Logan if he is out there that, you know, all you gotta do is call say, I'm alive proof, no questions asked. He'll close the case. And that's his way of letting everybody know he's alive, but leave himm alone.
Ashley:
I'm not an expert in this case. I haven't seen all the files and documents that James has, but I agree with him. I don't think Logan left on his own. If that was his plan… why not take your wallet or your cellphone or your car to get to wherever it is that you’re going. Earlier this year (in 2021) remains were found by Timber workers in Winlock, WA. Some reports indicated the remains were male, but that hasn’t been confirmed… I’m not even sure if they could confirm that this early on unless there was other evidence to suggest that found with the remains. People were quick to think of Logan when news broke of this development, due to the location of where his car was found and where the remains were found, but some think they could also belong to Nancy Moyer. Truly we won’t have any answers to the ID of who was found for weeks, if not months. But if those remains do end up belonging to Logan or Nancy, I will of course update you. If you or anyone you know have any information about Logan’s whereabouts please contact the Thurston County Sheriff's Office at 360-786-5500 or if you’re not comfortable reaching out to the police, you can talk to James. His podcast is called Hide and Seek and you can follow his investigation wherever you listen to podcasts.
Ashley:
Washed Away is a Cosmic Bigfoot production. Find my show notes including photos and links at washedawaypodcast.com, follow the show on twitter and instagram @washedawaypod, and send case suggestions to washedawaypodcast@gmail.com - Thanks to Gabi from Ghoulish Tendencies for editing and research help on this episode. If you’d like to support Washed Away, you can now buy me a coffee through a link I’ll post in the show notes or you could simply subscribe or follow the show wherever you listen and if that happens to be on Apple, please leave a rating or review. Thank you for your patience between episodes by the way. Washed Away is my passion project, I don’t run ads or anything so I don’t make money from this podcast, my goal is simply just to try and help solve some cold cases in the state that I call home and I put out new episodes whenever I have time. If you made it all the way to the end, just know that I appreciate you so much. I'm Ashley Smith. And I'll talk to you again.
