Five Miles From Home - Ep. 1: Mickie
Dateline Originals
This episode of 'Five Miles From Home' explores the mysterious disappearance of 16-year-old Michaela Costanzo, known as Mickey, in the remot
Key takeaways
- Mickey was a confident, positive teenager with strong routines and close family ties, making her sudden absence deeply alarming.
Main topics
- Missing person investigation
- Family dynamics and parental guilt
Notable quotes
She was just 18, tiny, 98 pounds and barely 5 feet tall. But the story she took with her on that torture drive was, she knew, going to change everything.
I was... in shock and numb. I didn't know what I was feeling. It was like I was in a daze.
Conclusion
The episode ends with the haunting uncertainty of Mickey's fate—her fa
Transcript preview
Speaker 8 (0:12) What was she thinking as she secretly slipped into a car, wearing just her pajamas? Her mind at turmoil as she rode down Interstate 80 across northern Nevada. Would she, could she, reveal what she knew? She was just 18, tiny, 98 pounds and barely 5 feet tall. But the story she took with her on that torture drive was, she knew, going to change everything. Speaker 1 (0:44) She came and Speaker 4 (0:45) we talked Speaker 1 (0:46) and we recorded the conversation with her permission. And it was dynamite. The man she had come to talk to was a distinguished attorney. Speaker 8 (0:55) If anyone could advise her, surely it would be he, about the story she said she had to tell. Speaker 7 (1:02) It had been eating at me and eating at me. I couldn't sit there and live with myself knowing what I knew. Speaker 8 (1:10) And then out it came, the whole terrifying story, possibly true, and possibly a careful and cunning deceit. Speaker 7 (1:20) I was... to in shock and numb. I didn't know what I was feeling. It was like I was in a daze. Speaker 8 (1:31) Still was, she said, about the thing that happened and about who was there and what happened after and what might happen next in a small town deep in the American desert. Speaker 3 (1:43) They deserve to be in hell for doing that. And there is nothing they can say or do that will make it better. They cannot fix this. Speaker 8 (1:54) Some things aren't fixable. Some things are hard to explain. Speaker 2 (2:00) It doesn't make sense. I still wonder to this day why. What's the real reason? Or what even really happened? Speaker 1 (2:12) I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Five Miles From Home, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 1, Mickey. Speaker 1 (2:31) There is a place, a remote, windy Speaker 8 (2:34) place tucked away in the sliver of northeast Nevada, next to the Utah border. You'd certainly see it if you cruised along Interstate 80. Casinos, five of them, flashing away like some Vegas in miniature, a golf shot or two off the highway, the town of 4,000 or so spilling out onto the surrounding desert. And if tempted by a meal or Speaker 1 (3:00) a rest or a roll of the dice, if you pulled off that highway, you'd be welcomed by a great grinning cowboy, or the improbable towering image of one, 63 feet high, garish and weirdly charming, as it waves a welcome. A giant concoction in neon and steel they call Wendover Will. For Wes Wendover, name of the town. And a reminder of more innocent days. Speaker 2 (3:29) It's pretty much the only thing Wendover was known for. Speaker 8 (3:32) Her name is Christina. She knows what happened to innocents. Knows all too well. Speaker 2 (3:39) Now, you know, everybody's like, oh, Wendover. Oh, do you know that girl? It's a question, unfortunately, that gets asked because we have a lot of tourists that come into the casino towns from all over. And that's what Wendover is known for now. Speaker 8 (3:54) Yes, Speaker 1 (3:55) even now. Speaker 8 (3:56) All these years later. And how did it begin? That memory is as clear as the morning sun on the high desert. And cold. Like the desert wind that Thursday morning in March 2011. Speaker 1 (4:16) 16-year-old Michaela Costanzo, Mickey, as everybody calls her, was up early preparing for school. She was a creature of habit, was Mickey. She stuffed her signature polka-dotted black bag full of track gear and then made sure she had her lanyard full of keys with her favorite charm, a little panda bear. Well, Mother Celia, a single mom, quickly dressed so she could drop Mickey at school before heading to her hosting job at one of the local casinos. All very routine, except for one little thing. The thing about coming home after school. She was Speaker 3 (4:55) supposed to walk home, which is not a normal thing for her. Speaker 1 (5:00) Usually, Mickey would ride home with Christina, 28 years old then. 12 years older than her little sister. But Christina was out of town, vacationing in Las Vegas with her boyfriend, soon-to-be husband. Here's Christina. Speaker 2 (5:16) I thought that everything was fine. I mean, everything was normal. Speaker 1 (5:20) I Speaker 2 (5:21) remember because before we had left... Me and or my boyfriend would always pick Michaela up from school. And so we were like, are you sure you're going to have a way home? Speaker 1 (5:32) This is something you do every day. Speaker 2 (5:33) This is something I do every day. And it was the very first time I had ever left my sister. Speaker 1 (5:40) Still, it wasn't far to walk, Speaker 8 (5:42) a mile or so in this relatively safe little town. And Mickey wasn't worried, not at all. She wasn't Speaker 1 (5:50) the worrying type. She was confident, pretty and popular, with long dark hair, warm brown eyes, an easy smile. People seemed to gravitate to her, said her mother Celia. Speaker 3 (6:02) She had a way of looking at life that was just amazing. She was always positive. Speaker 8 (6:08) Celia's brown eyes were beaming as she told me about the youngest of her three daughters. Speaker 3 (6:14) If someone was not so good or it wasn't such a great day, she'd say, it's okay, it'll get better. She found the good in everything and everybody. Speaker 8 (6:23) And Mickey was quite good Speaker 1 (6:24) herself. A super student, a gifted writer, a star athlete, and the leader of the West Wendover Wolverine track team. So that day, after classes, She hurried to the locker room, suited up in her bright red running outfit, laced up her spikes, and headed down to Speaker 8 (6:44) the Speaker 1 (6:45) big oval track for some speed Speaker 8 (6:47) training. Speaker 8 (6:49) There was no mistaking Mickey, fast and graceful, as she glided through her laps in the high-altitude air, long hair flowing, legs pumping, her form near Speaker 1 (7:02) perfect. After 45 minutes of sprints and stretching, Mickey went to the gym for a weight training session, followed by a quick change of clothes in the girls' locker room, and then out the school's back door to walk that mile or so home. Speaker 1 (7:19) It was just after 5 p.m. Across town, Celia was schmoozing with customers inside the bustling Nugget Casino. But her mind was on Mickey, and Speaker 8 (7:30) the phone call she'd be getting from her any minute now. Speaker 3 (7:34) Michaela is not your typical teenager. That girl would check in with me all the time. I'm changing. I'm going to be heading out. The next call I get from her is, I'm heading home. Speaker 1 (7:49) Always kept in touch. Speaker 3 (7:50) Always. To a fault. Speaker 1 (7:53) But Mickey did not call. So Celia called Mickey. Speaker 3 (7:58) She'll never not answer me. It does not matter what she does, she'd answer. And she's always been like that. And so at a quarter after five. I started calling her phone. And it rang and rang and rang the first time. Speaker 8 (8:17) The sun, orange and anxious, sank behind desert foothills. And Speaker 3 (8:23) then the next call, it went straight to voicemail like the phone was off. And I'm like, okay, this is so not her. Speaker 1 (8:32) So Celia, panic rising, called her eldest daughter Christina 400 miles south in Las Vegas. Here Speaker 8 (8:40) is Christina. Speaker 2 (8:41) She said, when's the last time you talked to Mickey? And I said, a few hours ago. And she says, I can't find her. And I said, Mom, she's probably at practice. And she says, no, practice, they ended, and she's not home. And I said, well, maybe she went to the gym. Calm down, because my mom's... I was easily upset. You're probably just missing her. Speaker 1 (9:05) Christina tended to be the cool head in the family. Mature and wise with Speaker 8 (9:09) cold, dark eyes under a pair of wiring glasses. She wasn't too concerned. Speaker 2 (9:15)