PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. — What’s the truth, and what’s impossible? These are questions Ellie Green is asking about her mother’s disappearance after her father told her different stories.
On Thursday, FOX4 released phone calls between Ellie and her father, Geoff Green, about Angela Green’s death. Now, we’re looking deeper and investigating his claims.
In the hours of calls and texts between the two they talk about a number of scenarios about what he says happened to Angela — stories that are not only implausible to Ellie, but to professionals as well.
According to their back and forth in the calls, Geoff claims Angela was forced into a mental health facility where she died. She was then cremated by either the facility or an unknown funeral home.
At the time, he said an unknown person from an unknown organization delivered the ashes to his home. Geoff he paid the person $1,500 for an urn and ashes. Ellie said she’s seen pictures of the urn but hasn’t seen proof of her mother’s remains.
She said when she realized there was no death certificate for her mother, all the stories became just that. Stories.
“I wanted to remember like, step by step, what he said actually happened. And that way he keep track of all the different stories,” she said.
In a text message that’s never been made public before, Geoff told his daughter Ellie he had Angela taken to a mental health facility. The handoff to care workers allegedly happened in the parking lot of a supermarket.
ELLIE: How did you take her away?
GEOFF: We met the mental health people in the store parking lot, and it was a struggle. Better than trying to pry her out of her house. And she always looks good going out so she did not have the embarrassment of house clothes or an untidy house.
However, later in the calls, he said that never happened, that the story was false. Ellie said her father can’t explain why he said this to her and why he told her Angela was dead.
ELLIE: You literally told me that she was not taken away in a public parking lot with people.
GEOFF: Well, I thought that I was going to try and do that. And then I figured that that may not be the best thing. So, I told her that I was going to have people come and pick her up and she was gonna go to the hospital.
Michael Tabman, a retired FBI Special Agent in Charge, said changing stories is a red flag for investigators.
“Anytime law enforcement looks at changing stories, it raises suspicion,” Tabman said. “And when you can’t explain someone’s death, that’s not the same as not remembering was that a green car? Or a blue car? Or what time of day it was? That’s something that you remember.”
Geoff also told his daughter that Angela’s ashes were delivered to the family home, but he’d never made arrangements to have her cremated.
He said he received a call to his work last summer from an unknown person at an unknown facility that Angela died in their care. He said he was busy and had to get off the phone. The next call he received about it was a request to drop off the cremains.
ELLIE: Well, the death certificate is needed when you cremate somebody.
GEOFF: Yeah, but I don’t know that I need to get a death certificate for cremation. I don’t have a clue how that all works.
ELLIE: And you chose not to look it up and research anything about it?
GEOFF: No.
Pam Scott, the executive director of the Kansas Funeral Directors Association, said a facility or funeral home will never make that decision for a family because they legally can’t.
Scott also said there is never an instance where someone in Kansas could be cremated legally without a cremator’s permit.
Ellie reached out to the Kansas Department of Vital Statistics. She said they told her there is no record of a permit, and they told her before one can be obtained, you need a death certificate.
According to Prairie Village police, there is no record of Angela’s death in the country.
Scott said when someone is cremated it has to be signed off on because it’s a serious process. She said once a body is buried it can be exhumed, but once someone is cremated, there’s no going back.
“Funeral homes, crematories want to make sure that, No. 1, they have a correct body, and that the family does want the cremation, and they obviously don’t want to cremate someone where the person who has authority to make those decisions is signing off on it,” Scott said.
In a recorded call, now knowing these stories are false, Ellie asks her dad what he’s going to do to help find her mother.
GEOFF: I’m not doing anything about mom in your eyes, therefore, I shouldn’t — I can’t do anything at all period is kind of how you’re looking at it.
ELLIE: What is doing anything about mom in your eyes?
GEOFF: I don’t know, you keep coming up with talking to these people, hiring those people, going here, doing this, and I tell you that she left and I’m not happy about that. She’s an adult and if she’s decides to leave — Fine. she can leave. She comes back? We’ll talk about her coming back, but I don’t want her back the way she was.
“I think we see what we would consider odd reactions to somebody losing their wife,” Tabman said. “Generally, we have expectations, how someone would respond and how they would tell their daughter. You would call them immediately. I’m trying to put myself in that sad situation. We can’t figure out why someone would try to keep it a secret.”
Tabman said he believes it’s unlikely Angela is alive, based on the fact there’s been no sign of her for more than a year; however, he said there are instances where people show back up — but those are rare.
In March, the Prairie Village Police Department served two warrants in Angela’s disappearance to the family home and a location where Geoff stores vintage cars.
There are no arrests or charges in the case. Tabman said sometimes without physical evidence investigations can hit a brick wall.
“You need evidence. You need to walk in court with evidence that is solid and incontrovertible,” Tabman said. “Not ‘Oh, I don’t like his reaction. Obviously, he did it.’ That won’t cut it. Without evidence, I wouldn’t dare say he did it. And I wouldn’t say it’s not possible there’s another explanation.”
Still, it won’t stop Ellie from searching for answers.
“I hope that she is proud of me for standing up for her because she doesn’t have a voice for whatever reason,” Ellie said. “And I am trying to be that voice and just give back to her as much as she has given to me in my life.”
FOX4 reached out to not only Geoff, but also his lawyer that specializes in criminal defense. Both have said he has no comment.
Ellie said she will not stop until she finds out what happened to her mother and where she is.