Long Time Gone

Sloan Hastings arrives at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in Raleigh, North Carolina, to begin her two-year fellowship under Dr. Livia Cutty. Sloan graduated from Duke University with a dual degree in criminology and forensic science, completed a four-year pathology residency, and, at 29 years old, is beginning the last step toward her dream of becoming a medical examiner.

Sloan meets the other three fellows before they present their cases to their mentors, and Livia enters. Sloan is starstruck. Livia explains how she quickly became the youngest chair of the fellowship program: She was the Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan before moving to Raleigh, and she makes frequent appearances on the news. Livia tells the fellows that she will be exacting but fair.

Livia explains what the two-year OCME fellowship will entail: In the first year, the fellows will research an assigned topic while assisting second-year fellows with examinations, and in the second year, they will perform almost 300 autopsies. Most programs last only one year, and Sloan hopes that the two-year program with Livia will boost her resume.

Livia calls Sloan into her office and tells her that her research topic will be forensic genealogy. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Golden State Killer went on a spree of sexual assaults and murders in California, and police found their DNA at some of the crime scenes. Decades after the killer had ceased to be active, investigators used genetic databases connected to ancestry discovery services to solve the crime. Livia gives Sloan a binder outlining her responsibilities for the project, including a four-hour presentation that Sloan will need to give at the end of the year.

Sloan reviews the binder’s contents at home and decides to find other cases that were solved using forensic genealogy. She finds 10 cases that could work, excluding the Golden State Killer. She also reaches out to James Clayton, a genealogist in Raleigh, and asks him for help in understanding the basics of genealogy. He agrees to meet her at a café that night.

Sloan meets James at the café and is surprised that he is young. She explains her fellowship, and he walks her through how investigators caught the Golden State Killer. An investigator created a fake profile on an ancestry site using the killer’s DNA, which led to a second cousin, whose profile then pointed to the killer. His DNA was confirmed through trash from his home.

James notes that there are ongoing legal and ethical debates about using these databases for investigations. He offers to set up a profile for Sloan on Your Lineage, the site for which he works. Sloan hesitates because she is adopted, and she did not expect her research to turn into a search for her biological family. James says he can expedite the process, and Sloan accepts, thinking that she needs to set aside personal qualms for her research.

Sloan visits her parents before going to the morgue to meet her second-year fellow. Dolly and Todd Hastings own a combined dentist and orthodontist office, and Todd is still disappointed that Sloan did not go into the family business.

Dolly and Todd are both dressed in scrubs, as they always were throughout Sloan’s childhood. She tells them about the genetic research and how she might find her biological family. They agree that they will always be her parents, even if she finds more family. They tell her that they did not know Sloan’s biological family and only met her biological mother twice. Dolly and Todd say that they want to know if Sloan finds anything out about her family, and Todd asks if Sloan needs any money.

Sloan finishes her first autopsy, assisting Dr. Hayden Cox, the second-year fellow to whom she was assigned. She is excited for the following year, when she will be doing autopsies of her own to find clues left behind with the bodies.

James calls her, and she realizes it has been a week since she gave him her DNA. He says there is something strange with Sloan’s DNA profile and asks to meet. Sloan sends him her address and asks if it is something bad. James says he is unsure and agrees to meet her at 8:00 pm.

Sloan struggles to focus on her autopsy notes, and James arrives at 8:30 pm. They use James’s laptop to review the information he already had on Sloan. Because she was adopted, he checked to confirm that she is not related to the Hastings family, which she is not.

Then, he found a biological connection to Ellis Margolis, through his wife Nora’s profile, and discovered that Ellis is Sloan’s uncle. Through Nora’s profile and government records, James found that Sloan is the biological daughter of Preston and Annabelle Margolis, and her birth name is Charlotte Margolis. Sloan is confused by the birth name, believing that Preston and Annabelle gave her up for adoption. However, Nora’s profile says Preston, Annabelle, and Charlotte went missing from Cedar Creek, Nevada, on July 4, 1995. They are presumed dead.

James and Sloan research the Margolis family’s disappearance late into the night. Newspapers called Sloan “Baby Charlotte,” and even larger newspapers like the New York Times reported on their disappearance. Preston and Annabelle married shortly after Charlotte’s birth on May 11, 1995. Preston was a prominent lawyer at his family’s law firm, and Annabelle was under investigation for a hit-and-run car accident. Some reporters suspected that the family fled prosecution.

Statements from Sandy Stamos, the Harrison County sheriff, indicate that the Sheriff’s Office was working on the case with the FBI. Preston, Annabelle, and Charlotte were last seen at the Split the Creek Fourth of July celebration in Cedar Creek, after they visited Nora Margolis, a notable photographer in the area. James confirms that his DNA test is reliable, and he suggests that Sloan go to the police. Sloan wants to talk to her parents first. She forgets about her research, becoming obsessed with this mystery.

Sloan goes to her parents’ dental practice with the research she and James found. Dolly and Todd gather in Dolly’s office, and Sloan explains that the DNA test revealed that she is the daughter of Preston and Annabelle Margolis. Sloan’s parents say her birth mother’s name was Wendy Downing, not Margolis, and they offer to provide the adoption paperwork. Sloan shows them news clippings about the family’s disappearance, and they remember the case, but they do not understand the connection to Sloan. Sloan clarifies that she is Baby Charlotte.

Dolly and Todd take the day off and go home with Sloan, where they review Sloan’s research in detail. She confirms the DNA test’s accuracy and asks about her adoption. Her parents confess that after three years of working with an adoption agency, they decided to try private adoption.

In the early days of the internet, a lot of prospective parents were successful in adopting directly from biological parents online. They met Wendy Downing within two months of searching, signed the paperwork, and adopted Sloan. After looking at pictures of Annabelle, they confirm that Wendy and Annabelle are not the same person. Sloan wonders if Wendy kidnapped her. Dolly and Todd think they should contact the police.

After Sloan contacts the police, a patrol officer comes to ask some questions, then a detective with the missing persons unit, followed by agents from the FBI’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. An evidence technician takes a new swab of Sloan’s DNA, and within 72 hours, they confirm that Sloan is Charlotte Margolis.

The FBI agents question Dolly and Todd about Sloan’s adoption and then take them to the FBI headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Feeling the need for space and a distraction, Sloan decides to go to work, but she does not notice an SUV following her in traffic.

At the morgue, Sloan assists Hayden with the autopsy of a woman who died by suicide, overdosing on Valium. Hayden asks Sloan questions about the autopsy, noting that they will do a quick toxicology screen to present the case because the full tox screen will take days to complete. Sloan is successfully distracted from the ongoing investigation. After typing her notes, Sloan wonders if anyone reads the autopsy summaries.

After work, Sloan decides to go to the gym, and she notices a Toyota SUV behind her. Something about it sparks her interest, and she weaves through traffic on the highway. The SUV follows her, but it does not exit behind her. Relieved, Sloan goes to the gym, exercises, and heads home. However, she sees that the SUV is now parked across from her apartment and notices that it has a Nevada license plate.

Sloan debates going to her parents’ home or FBI headquarters, but she decides to go to her apartment despite the SUV. Outside her door, she finds a man scrolling on his phone. He asks if she is Sloan Hastings, and Sloan panics. She struggles to get her pepper spray from her purse as the man approaches her. Sloan sprays him in the eyes, but the pepper spray gets in her eyes, too. They both collapse, and Sloan sees a police badge in the man’s hand.

Sloan and the man spend an hour recovering from the pepper spray. She finds out that he is Sheriff Eric Stamos, son of Sheriff Sandy Stamos. Eric explains that he has been looking through the files on the Margolis family disappearance and Sandy’s death for the past year.

Though the autopsy report indicates that Sandy was on heroin and crashed his car, Eric does not believe it. He thinks the Margolis family manipulated the report and had a role in Preston, Annabelle, and Charlotte’s disappearance. Eric’s grandfather was also the sheriff of Harrison County, like Eric and Sandy, and he told Eric to continue investigating the case after Sandy’s death.

Sloan does not have much information, but she tells him about the past week. Eric tells her that he drove to Raleigh from Cedar Creek to avoid being traced by the Margolis family. He warns Sloan that they cannot find out that Eric and Sloan have met.

Sloan and Eric go to a pizzeria and order a pizza. Sloan finds Eric handsome and calculates that he is 38 years old, since he told her he was 9 when Sandy was killed, shortly after the Margolis’s disappearance.

Eric explains that the Margolis family controls Cedar Creek and has a lot of power in Nevada. Members of the family run the state police, the legal system, and a Margolis is even a Nevada senator. Eric, his father, and his grandfather managed to get elected as sheriff, the last front on which anyone can resist the Margolis family. Before Sandy died, he discovered something about a hit-and-run case, in which Annabelle was a primary suspect, and the night of the disappearance.

Eric wants Sloan to introduce herself to the Margolis family and ingratiate herself to find out what they might know. He believes that although the family has a code of not talking to outsiders, they might welcome Sloan into the family. Sloan asks to hear more about the hit-and-run case.

Dale Pickett is a trucker, driving for 11 months each year and only spending December with family. Driving through Cedar Creek on Highway 67 at 1:00 am, Dale sees a body in the road. He pulls over, examines the body, and finds it is a dead man. In the distance, there is a car pulled over, with an open driver’s side door. Dale calls 911 and reports the body, then he retrieves his handgun from his truck and walks toward the parked car.

Sheriff Sandy drives down Highway 67 to find Dale’s rig. He passes an empty car with an open door, parks down the road from the body in the road, and uses a floodlight to examine the area. Dale greets Sandy, explains that he is driving from Boise to Reno, and notes that he has a firearm. Dale investigated the body and car, but he did not touch anything. The car has a dented bumper and busted headlight, so Sandy concludes that the driver hit the man, pulled over, and ran away. Sandy calls the medical examiner and asks Dale to wait and give a statement.

Sandy calls the incident in and receives word that the car belongs to Annabelle Margolis. The Margolis family is the most powerful in Cedar Creek, and Annabelle just recently married into the family. Sandy debates whom he can trust with this information, and he asks the operator to keep Annabelle’s involvement a secret. Sandy decides to drive to the Margolis family home to discuss the situation with Annabelle.

Sandy goes to Preston and Annabelle’s newly constructed lake house, where he finds Lester Strange, the family’s handyman, painting the garage. Lester greets Sandy, who knocks on the front door, thinking about how Preston’s parents, Reid and Tilly Margolis, likely paid for the home’s construction.

Preston answers the door, and Sandy asks to speak with Annabelle. Preston quickly switches to his lawyer persona, having just graduated from law school and joined Margolis & Margolis as a junior associate. Sandy insists that he only needs to talk to Annabelle. He tells Preston about the hit-and-run and Annabelle’s car. Preston seems genuinely confused, and they check the garage, only to find Annabelle’s car missing. Preston agrees to wake Annabelle so that they can talk in the kitchen.

Sandy gets the impression that Annabelle was asleep, and she and Preston insist they were home all night. Charlotte has a cough, so they took turns waking up, checking on the baby, and sleeping in the baby’s room. Annabelle has her car keys, and she says she has not left the house since Wednesday, when she went to get Charlotte’s medicine.

Sandy asks them not to leave town, although he has a feeling that Annabelle was not driving her car at the time of the accident. He knows the Margolis family has enemies and worries the case will become complicated.

Sandy goes to see Dr. Rachel Crane, Washoe County’s Chief Medical Examiner, at her office in Reno. She has identified the man Dale found in the road as Baker Jauncey, a partner at the Margolis & Margolis law firm. Rachel sympathizes with Sandy’s desire to avoid a direct confrontation with the Margolis family, but she tells Sandy that Baker was not killed by a car.

Rachel explains how the head injury that killed Baker could not have been caused by a car. Based on the shape of the wound and wood fragments within it, Rachel concludes that Baker was killed by a baseball bat, making his death a homicide. Sandy notes the blood trail around Baker’s body on the highway and the blood under Annabelle’s car, and Rachel clarifies that Baker was killed before getting hit by the car.

Sandy asks Rachel to hold off on releasing this information, explaining Baker’s connection to the Margolis family and Annabelle’s car at the scene. Rachel agrees, but she notes that the state police will want details. Sandy asks Rachel to give him a week.

A windowless van pulls up to the Washoe County morgue in Reno. Two men get out and enter the building through a door someone left unlocked for them. They locate Baker Jauncey’s body, remove it, bring it to the town morgue in Cedar Creek, and swap the body’s tags. Baker Jauncey’s body is now the property of the Harrison County Medical Examiner’s Office, and the medical examiner promises to perform an autopsy on the body in the morning.