The Wallet That Traveled 1,400 Miles - But How?

The Wallet That Traveled 1,400 Miles - But How?

A waterlogged wallet found on a Missouri trotline contained a perfectly dry handwritten note and belonged to a man living more than 1,400 miles away - so how did it cross state lines and end up in a river it should never have touched? What sequence of events left leather swollen from weeks of humidity while the ink inside stayed untouched?

In this episode, we follow the discovered wallet, the people connected to it, and the forensic clues that shifted the story from theft to a chain of accidents and preservation - can a single preserved detail reveal who carried it and why it was dropped where it was found?

Person: Richard Schultz
Date found: February 14, 2019
Location: Sable River, Dunmore County, Missouri
Finder: Frank Carlson
Examiner: Donna Reese

- The wallet belonged to 28-year-old Richard Schultz of Tempe, Arizona, more than 1,400 miles from the river.
- The wallet was wrapped around hook number three on a trotline and pulled at 6:40 AM.
- The handwritten note read "Thursday shift - don't forget Mrs. Navarro's chair" in blue ballpoint ink and remained perfectly dry.
- Forensic examiner Donna Reese found leather damage consistent with weeks of humidity but concluded river submersion lasted less than four hours.
- Journalist Harvey Phillips spent six weeks reconstructing the wallet's journey and narrowed the river-submersion window to likely less than twenty minutes.

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