Exit 2 - The Car That Drove Itself

Listen to ML Browning in this episode share a story of the disappearance of Logan Schiendelman who vanished near Tumwater, Washington under circumstances that still leave more questions than answers. After his car was abandoned along I-5 following a bizarre series of events, investigators struggled to piece together what happened in the final hours before his disppearance.

In this episode of Corridor of Crime, we examine Logan’s life and a bit of the timeline leading up to his disappearance, witness accounts, investigative theories, and the lingering uncertainty that continues to haunt both his family and the PNW.

If you have any information related to Logan Schiendelman’s disappearance, please contact the Thurston County Sheriff’s office in Washington State. 

Sources for this episode include publicly available news reports and interviews. For a full list, please visit our website at CorridorofCrime.com.

-Sarah Elle

• https://www.co.thurston.wa.us/sheriff/ Agency Case Number 
  16-2709 
•  Hide and Seek Podcast
• Missing Person / NamUs #MP34124 | NamUs 

Thank you to the following sponsors and affiliates:

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome, passengers. This is Sarah L, along with ML Browning. Two lifelong friends who didn't just stay friends. We stayed curious. This is Corridor of Crime, and we're taking you with us. Every episode is an exit, and every exit is a story. So buckle up. And please remember to always check your blind spots. Please take care while listening. Hello, welcome, passengers. Today we are recording on Mother's Day. So happy Mother's Day to anyone who shows up as a nurturer to those they love. This is Sarah L, and today's story is from Miss Browning. What do you have for us today, ML? And welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Um, today I have for us a story that came to me from a friend of mine that at the time that this took place, she actually lived in the Tumwater, Washington area. And she told me about it. And the more she said, I found it so interesting that I felt like I needed to look into it and learn all that I could about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Tumwater, Washington. I think this is the second story I've heard about this week about Tumwater. That feels a little spooky. I don't even know where Tumwater is. Is that by Olympia area?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Well, thank you. So this is ML Browning. This is exit two for Corridor of Crime. Welcome, travelers. So today's episode, we are gonna cover the disappearance of 19-year-old Logan Schindleman, a case that remains unsolved nearly a decade later. And something to point out is that next week is the 10th, the 10th anniversary of Logan's disappearance. So before the mystery, before the freeway, and before the questions that still don't have answers, there was a young man named Logan Schindleman. Logan was a 19-year-old living in Tumwater, Washington, a quiet town just outside Olympia, where life tends to move a little slower. It's the kind of place where routines feel familiar and people recognize each other at the store and anywhere they go. Logan didn't grow up in a traditional household, but he had something that was just as powerful. From the day Logan was born, he was raised by his grandmother, Ginny Jibo, also known as Ginny Schindleman. And she wasn't just his guardian, she was his stability, his constant support, and his home. Logan's father, Adele, wasn't a part of his life, and his mother moved away to the Seattle area. His mother did stay in his life, but Ginny stepped in and raised him fully and entirely on her own, providing structure, love, and a sense of belonging. And by all accounts, she did an incredible job. Logan was well liked in high school. He was described as being easy-going, funny, and the kind of person who made friends easily. He played varsity football for Tumwater High School. He was a good student, and on the outside, his life looked normal. But like so many people at that age, there were things happening beneath the surface that no one could fully see. Some coverages of the case reference Logan's background and experience as part of the broader context of his life. According to reportings, Logan's mother, Hannah Schindleman, is biracial. She is white and of African American descent, and his father is Saudi Arabian. For most of his life, that side of who he was remained distant, almost abstract. It wasn't until he turned 18 that he met members of his extended family, the African American side, and that added another dimension to his personal history. In an interview on the Hide and Seek podcast from December 2020, Ginny said that she did not keep Logan from reaching out to that side of the family. However, she did not promote it either. His aunt that he did meet on that side did say that she didn't really feel like Ginny liked them too much and didn't know why. Accounts from family members differ regarding Logan's connection to his extended family, and out of respect for everyone's feelings, I won't attempt to explain something that I have no full understanding of. Things felt different leading up to his disappearance. Around the same time, something else happened. In an interview Jenny did, she said that during his senior year, someone made a racial remark towards him. He was at a party with his friends, and one of the girls made a racial remark. But what stayed with Logan wasn't what was said, it was what wasn't done. None of his friends stood up for him, nobody defended him. They all just stayed silent.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Do we know if he was the only person of color in the friend group? My understanding was that he was. In the Pacific Northwest, it tends to be not very diverse. So that would make sense. That's really unfortunate, and I can imagine that would feel very isolating, only imagine.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

So that moment stayed with Logan, not just because of what was said, but because no one stepped in. I would imagine that made him feel very alone in the moment. Jenny had said that it affected him so bad that he actually called her and asked her to come pick him up from the party. He just wanted to go home.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Can we just talk about that a little bit more? Have you ever had those friends that talk about it later? Like they'll call you later if they know and saw something that was done to you that was not kind or was terrible, they don't stand up for you in the moment. But then they'll call you later, like, oh you know, that was really terrible. But don't say anything in the moment. They're just as bad. That's what I feel like.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

I agree, because it's kind of like they did not want to stand up and go against everybody else in the moment. But let me be when nobody knows that I'm saying it, let me tell you how bad that was. Exactly. Just as bad. Okay. According to Ginny, this marked a noticeable shift in him. In the months that followed, he began to withdraw, become more guarded, more distanced, and at times struggled emotionally in ways those close to him didn't fully understand. After graduation, Logan tried to take the next step. He enrolled at Washington State University in Pullman, a new environment, new people, and a fresh start. And at first it looked like he was doing okay. He was making friends from what Jenny said during her interview and seemed to be doing really good. But then slowly things began to unravel. He stopped going to classes, assignments went unfinished, and eventually he stopped attending classes and had to withdraw completely. Not because he wasn't capable, those close to him later said they didn't fully understand the changes in his behavior. Some accounts describe the period of his life as one where he was adjusting to major changes and transitions. So back home he went, back to Tumwater, back to Ginny, where life began to slow again. He picked up jobs where he could, working in nursing homes, taking shifts in fast food. He spent time playing video games. He'd hang out with his friends once in a while if he felt like it, trying in his own way to figure things out. But internally, Logan was seemingly still searching. Jenny said during that time that Logan reportedly used marijuana, and some accounts from those close to him later described changes in his behavior.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Do we know what kind of changes in his behavior were noted?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

I think just the more distant and not really connecting with people, things like that. Okay. Then came May of 2016, and something wasn't right. Logan's behavior had started to shift. He seemed distracted, distanced, and at times even disoriented. He had made unexpected trips, no known locations were confirmed, but he would just get in his car, take trips. He reconnected or tried to with people, but that didn't really click either. Ginny would later say that Logan didn't seem like himself, that something about his behavior in those final days stood out. On May 19th, Logan spoke with Ginny before leaving. He told her that he might be gone for the weekend, but he gave no indication or explanation of where he would be going. And then he said something to his grandmother that did not fit. According to Ginny, she would recall a troubling statement that Logan made before he left. He had told her that he was afraid that he might not make it. It wasn't dramatic or panicked, it was just stated. She was getting ready to go to work and they talked for a few minutes. Ginny had to leave and said they would talk about it when she got home. She asked him not to leave, just to stay home, and they would talk about it once she got home. According to a few sources, around that time, Logan had also been talking to a girl that he met in Portland online. Shortly before he disappeared, he also sent her a cryptic message. He had sent, I hope I survived this week. So there's two different people, two similar statements, and there's no explanation for either one.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

And see, that's really difficult to judge, not knowing Logan, not knowing his relationships, because you can take it a few ways. I know that those types of statements have been said by friends, by myself, um, by my kids in different ways. It could be said casually, it could be said, you know, sort of dramatically, like I am just not going to make it this week. And someone could say, okay, I know it's really rough. Could you stay? We'll talk about it later, knowing someone's going through a difficult time. But it also could be said in a way that's like, okay, I know you're really going through it, and I am concerned, but it also could be said another way, like, you know, I'm not gonna make it, and I could say, yeah, same, you know, in sort of a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. So it's really difficult to judge anyone responding to it or someone saying it in how serious to take it. There's so many dynamics in play, just reading it or hearing about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, I agree, because I know I personally have said it, and not in the context that I didn't think I was gonna make it. It's just like, oh my gosh, this is a long week. I don't think I'm gonna make it through.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

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SPEAKER_01 12:19

The next day, May 20th, 2016, Interstate 5, just outside Olympia, Washington, late morning traffic was moving normally, and then suddenly it wasn't. Drivers began to notice a black 1996 Chrysler Seabring convertible drifting across the freeway. It wasn't speeding, it wasn't swerving, it was drifting slowly, diagonally across the lanes. Witnesses would later report that the vehicle appeared uncontrolled as if no one was actually steering it. The car continued across the southbound lanes from the far right side of the freeway towards the center median. One driver had to react quickly, slowing down, even swerving to avoid a collision. And then the seabring struck the concrete median barrier. Traffic slowed, people watched, and that's when something even more unusual happened. A man exited the passenger side of the vehicle. He moved quickly, running from the car and disappearing into the woods along that freeway. Several witnesses reported that the individual they saw did not match Logan's description. Instead, he was described as a white male around six feet tall with a thin build and light-colored or blonde hair. Earlier that same day, another witness reported seeing Logan's car pulled over along Interstate 5 with the hood up. Near the vehicle were two white males, one appeared to be looking under the hood. Description varied slightly, but both men were reported as having light-colored hair, one wearing a tank top, and the other in a flannel shirt. When authorities arrived at the crash site, they confirmed the vehicle belonged to Logan Schindleman. Inside the car, they found his personal belongings, his wallet, identification, phone, and cash all still present. Nothing had been taken, no immediate signs of a struggle, just a vehicle abandoned on the freeway and a series of witnesses' accounts that even today don't fully align with a single explanation. It was as if Logan had simply vanished. This was one of the signs that was troublesome to the investigators that something just was not right with the case. Investigators considered whether Logan may have been experiencing a mental health crisis or if he just decided to disappear on his own. Something interesting I found when learning about this case was that Logan's uncle, Mike Ware, is a retired Thurston County Sheriff's Office lieutenant. He worked with the early stages of Logan's disappearance and helped coordinate and communicate details with the early search efforts in the wooded area nearby. Then came another strange detail. Using cell phone records, law enforcement was able to track and see that Logan had traveled up and down I-5 roughly 100 miles until it came to a stop where the vehicle was later recovered. There was no clear destination in mind. No one knows why. And then another reported sighting. Around 1.05 in the morning, a witness claimed to see a man walking along the freeway without pants. It's a detail that sounds kind of weird and unreal, but it's also part of the timelines that the investigators have to consider.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I feel like in 2026, not so weird. 2016, very weird.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Agree. Search teams didn't just look, they saturated the area. And according to the regional reporting and law enforcement statements, canines were deployed, air support scanned from above, volunteers combed through the dense woodlands, and grid searches were conducted near the crash site. But still nothing. There were no footprints, no clothing, no trace of Logan. Which raises a difficult question: if Logan went into those woods, where is the evidence that he was ever there? Even investigators have acknowledged that this case doesn't follow a clean narrative. Authorities say that they have not ruled out foul play, and that matters because cases like this usually lean one direction over time. Either an accident, a mental health crisis, a voluntary disappearance, but this one is never clear. And that's when investigators began to introduce multiple theories in their investigations. One theory suggests Logan was experiencing a mental health crisis, that he became disoriented, exited the vehicle, and wandered into the woods. But then that doesn't explain the witnesses. Witnesses later reported seeing this person exit from the passenger side of the vehicle, not the driver's side. But again, the person that exited the passenger side did not match Logan's appearance. Another theory suggests the possibility that someone else may have been involved. If Logan wasn't driving, then who was and why did they run? Someone with nothing to hide would not run away from a scene. Witnesses' descriptions weren't perfect, but they consistently suggested that something wasn't right. He had different hair, a different build, just enough difference to raise doubt. Another theory investigators assessed is whether Logan had tried to get in touch with his father and pass possibly found a way to go live with him. Personally, I don't believe that theory, especially if he never had anything to do with him.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

But I'm not an investigator, but and I guess they have to look at every avenue. Yeah. It does seem very strange though.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

I thought so too. Investigators have also considered the possibility of foul play, that Logan maybe had encountered someone, that maybe it was someone else in the car, or that maybe there was someone else that was not seen that also fled the scene. But again, there was no physical evidence, no confirmed set of second fingerprints, no sign of a struggle. It was just his absence. And then there's the details that linger. The one detail that keeps this case from ever feeling settled. Witnesses didn't just say the car looked uncontrolled, they said it looked like no one had been driving at all. Investigators have looked into everything. His phone, his movements, his recent activities, and there were no threats, there were just gaps of unaccounted moments. Places he had gone without explanation. It painted a picture of someone searching or possibly running, but never quite finding or confirming either. For Jeannie Jibo, the questions never stopped. For her, this isn't just a mystery, it's her grandson, a young man who should have come home. Over time, a few things have remained consistent. There's been no confirmed sighting of Logan after the crash, no remains have ever been found, the passenger side exit has never been explained, and perhaps the most frustrating of all is that no one single theory explains everything. There is one quiet possibility, one that no one likes to say out loud, is that Logan just went into the woods and never came out. But then even that does not explain the man who ran from the vehicle. And that's why this case stays, because it sits right on the edge of explanation, close enough to reality to feel solvable, but just far enough away to remain out of reach. When Logan disappeared and Jenny knew something was wrong, she tried to report him missing on Saturday, May 21st. However, the Thurston County Sheriff's Office was closed and no report was made. Jenny went back on Monday, May 23rd and successfully filed the missing person's report. It was at that time that the police had told her that Logan's car had already been found and impounded on May 20th after crashing into the median three days earlier. No one had contacted her even though the car was registered to her and Logan, and that Logan's identification was found inside. Inside, she found Logan's wallet, ID, debit card, cell phone, and cash. This was alarming because these are all the items someone would not leave behind if they are leaving on their own. Since Ginny went through the car herself and hadn't been advised not to, there was also now a potential risk of contaminating evidence. And unfortunately, since Logan had not been reported missing when the car was impounded, nothing gave officers a second thought to search the vehicle as a potential crime scene. Failure to notify the family of the recovered vehicle at the time it was impounded. In the missing person's case, especially early on, those first hours are crucial. So let's think about it like this the single most important piece of evidence in this case was already in police custody, and no one knew that it mattered. At the time the crash was treated as routine, a disabled car from a traffic incident, there was no reason at that time to think that it was anything more. By the time When Logan was officially reported missing, valuable time has already gone. In a missing person's case, time is everything. The Olympian reported in June 2016 that the takeaway isn't just about Logan, it's broader. Missing adult cases can fall into a gray area early on. Different departments, for example, traffic versus the missing persons department, don't always sink quickly. Procedures that work for routine cases can fail in rare, high-risk situations. While Logan's family was trying to report him missing, his car was already sitting in an impound lot, processed and forgotten as just another abandoned vehicle. Two parallel timelines that never intersected when they should have. According to reports from outlets like the Olympian, Logan's car had already been found impounded days before he was officially reported missing. At the time, investigators had just treated it like a routine traffic incident, but that decision created a critical delay. Because while the family was searching for answers, the most important piece of evidence in the case was at the impound lot, unconnected and unnoticed for what it really was. During her interview in December 2020, Jenny said that she did have Logan's phone pinged on the day he went missing. His phone pinged close to his mother's house, so she had just assumed that he was spending time with her.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

I wonder if that is related to the vehicle going northbound, southbound, northbound, whatever that was.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

The hundred miles.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Because that would make sense if she lived in the Seattle area.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Somewhere along Interstate 5, past the trees, past the traffic, there's a stretch of road where for a few minutes, witnesses once described the vehicle as moving as though it was not being actively controlled by a driver. And a young man disappeared. Years have passed and still no answers. According to follow-up coverages from regional outlets like the Daily Chronicle in May 2025, the case remains open with periodic calls for renewed attention. Because cases like this don't fade quietly. They linger in communities, in families, and in questions that don't go away. Every theory explains something, but none explain everything. If Logan was alone, who was seen running from the car? If someone else was involved, where is the evidence? If there was a mental health crisis, why was there a second person at the scene? And if he chose to disappear, why leave everything behind? This case doesn't just have gaps, it has contradictions, and that's what keeps it alive. If you have any information about the disappearance of Logan Schindleman, you are urged to contact authorities. Because somewhere, someone knows exactly what happened that day. They just haven't shared it yet. I did reach out to his family for any thoughts or comments that they may have. One family member did respond, advising that they were not interested in participating in the story. Apparently, they may have had some past incidents that were not always positive, so I understand that. I did reach out to Jenny, but I did not hear back from her. If you or someone you know has information about Logan's case, please contact either the Thurston County Sheriff's Office at 360-786-5500 or the Olympia Police Department at 360-704-2740. We have linked a sketch that was released in 2017 of what the person exiting the passenger side of Logan's car looked like, and we have also linked the missing person's poster for Logan. I felt pulled to tell Logan's story because cases like this they don't disappear. They wait for the one person who finally decides to talk.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Thanks so much for listening. All of our sources are in the show notes. Please find a full list and our affiliate links at corridorofcrime.com. We'd love for you to follow us on social media at Corridor of Crime on the platform of your choice. We'd appreciate it if you'd consider liking, rating, and subscribing to allow us to keep putting content out. Corridor of Crime is hosted and produced by Sarah L and ML Browning. Executive produced by Sarah L. And music is composed by Matthew Langdon Music. We will see you at the next exit. Until then, don't forget to buckle up and remember to always check your blind spots.