A young woman opened the door to her place of work, a sporting apparel store in Washington DC, and immediately realized something was wrong. Too afraid to investigate what she saw and heard, she ran from the store and called 911. When police arrived and entered the store, they heard a sound coming from a hallway in the back, and they began to move …

“This is not like her. We think… that she is confused and scared. We’re quite sure she doesn’t know who she is.” This is a terrifying thought for any parent or loved one to come to terms with. That someone they care about could forget who they are and not even realize that there are people out there who are desperately trying to find them and bring…

When 13-year-old Bianca Piper got into an argument with her mother, Shannon Tanner, over doing the dishes, Shannon put her in the car, drove her a mile up the road, and told her to walk home. While this may seem like an odd form of punishment, it was actually something that had been recommended by Bianca’s therapist. But on March 10, 2005, Bianca n…

“Dear Everybody, I’m sorry for everything. I won’t bother you anymore. Goodbye, Jaliek.” This is the letter that Stephen Kerr said his 12-year-old adopted son left in his empty bedroom at his grandparents’ home on November 1, 2007, right before he went missing. By all accounts, Jaliek was an emotionally troubled boy, and there was a great deal of f…

On August 15, 2008, a mother dropped her five-year-old son off to visit his father for the weekend. Her ex, Ernesto Gonzalez, hadn’t been very involved in their son, Giovanni’s, life since their separation three years prior, but he recently started making an effort to have a relationship with the boy. Daisy Colon packed Giovanni’s backpack with clo…

1, 2, 3, the Donahue family counted. 4, 5, 6, the numbers changed on the banner at their Arden Road home in Nokesville, Virginia. The days turned into weeks, which turned into months, which turned into years. The number had reached over 5,000 before the Donahue family got the news that they had been waiting for: an arrest had been made in the murde…

On March 22, 2010, 23-year-old Nokesville, Virginia resident Shane Donahue was having a good day. He had just gotten paid $5,000 in cash for installing ceiling tiles at a local business. He was with his buddy, Timothy Hickerson, who helped him with the job. The friends went over to Shane’s parents’ house for a while before getting into Timothy’s tr…

In 1999, she saved a couple from flooding after Hurricane Floyd. In 2002, she joined the Army so she could serve her country after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2006, she vanished. On October 10, 2006, 29-year-old Margaret Haddican-McEnroe was a mother of three girls, including a 6-month-old, when she allegedly walked out of her Warren, New Jersey…

On October 2, 2024, police announced a huge break in the case of missing 6-year-old, Morgan Nick. A hair that is a DNA match to hers was found in the truck owned by longtime suspect in her case, Billy Jack Links. Links died in prison in 2000, so now the investigation's focus is on finding Morgan's body. We released our episode on Morgan's case in 2…

In the early morning hours of February 14, 2000, 9-year-old Asha Degree took her backpack and slipped out of her Shelby, North Carolina home. Several motorists later reported seeing her walking alone in a rainstorm at around 4 am. Where was she going? What or who made her leave her home that night? Over the next 24 years, Asha Degree’s story has be…

Paul Bergrin is a hotshot criminal defense attorney in Newark, New Jersey. Seemingly unstoppable and with unorthodox methods, he’s built a reputation for getting his clients off the hook. But as Paul's legend grows, so do the suspicions swirling around him. When FBI Agent Shawn Brokos starts investigating a major drug ring, she makes a shocking dis…

A 15-year-old girl had an argument with her father about her grades. It’s a scene parents all over the world are likely familiar with, and one that is usually forgotten in a day or two. But when Katya Lyne had this argument with her father, Pat, on March 21, 1997, it ended in tragedy. Within days, Katya was missing, and her father was dead. The Lyn…

Asha Degree was a bright, talented, happy 9-year-old living with her parents and brother in Shelby, North Carolina. She was an excellent student and the star of her basketball team. Surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, there was no shortage of love in Asha’s life. But in the early morning hours of February 14, 2000, Asha took her…

On January 29, 1992, Byron Page was getting ready to go to college and take his driver’s exam. He had already been accepted into several schools, with more acceptance letters on the way. That afternoon, the 17-year-old decided to take the bus to his favorite movie and music store in West Hollywood, California. He never made it. Despite being a prom…

Today’s story is one about intimate partner violence. According to her family, friends, and police and court records, Mamta Kafle’s husband, Naresh Bhatt, was abusing her. He hid her documents, destroyed her phone, threatened to give their baby to social services, and physically abused her. Throughout it all, Mamta remained a kind, caring friend an…

On November 20, 1987, Louis and Susan Zaharias had an argument. By this point, fights weren’t uncommon for the couple, who had been married for six years. Susan was a stay-at-home mom with two small children who was feeling isolated while her husband worked long hours far away. But this day was different. Susan was acting paranoid, and not like her…

On August 2, 2024, Manassas Park Police visited the Virginia home that Mamta Kafle shared with her husband, Naresh Bhatt. They were there to perform a welfare check because Mamta didn’t show up to work at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center on August 1, and her colleagues were concerned. Naresh allegedly told police that Mamta had disappeared …

Introducing…World of Secrets: The Apartheid Killer Introducing a NEW investigation from the BBC’s World of Secrets podcast: The Apartheid Killer. All the victims were black and the youngest was just 12 years old. Some relatives are still searching for the graves. They were killed during a three-year bloodbath in the 1980s, in the South African city…

Disappearances can happen in an instant. On April 19, 2016, 16-year-old Tyler Christensen went on a jog. He wanted to get a short run in on his way to a youth group meeting. But Tyler never arrived. After Tyler’s family realized that he was gone, they assumed something terrible must have happened to him. After all, he was a happy kid, living in Edm…

It was a scene straight out of an action movie: specifically The Bourne Identity. On September 16, 2008, the captain of a Staten Island Ferry saw a woman floating face down in the Hudson River, near the Statue of Liberty. Horrified and thinking they found a dead body, two deckhands jumped in a rescue boat and went to her. When they reached the woma…

On August 1, 2018, 28-year-old Samantha Sayers was ready for an adventure. An experienced hiker, Sam decided to drive two hours away from her Seattle home and tackle Vesper’s Peak. The hike was supposed to only be a day trip, so when darkness fell with no word from Samantha, her boyfriend, Kevin Dare grew concerned. Worried that she was injured, he…

Though our podcast focuses on unsolved missing persons cases, over the course of the last four years, we’ve seen movement on many of the cases we’ve covered, including some resolutions. This week, we’re going to revisit a few of the missing people whose stories we’ve told on this podcast and give you updates on what’s going on in their cases today.…

In 2014, a little girl named Relisha Rudd went missing while living in a Washington DC homeless shelter, but no one noticed. For 18 days, no one in Relisha’s life saw her, but no one reported her missing. It wasn’t until a social worker from her school visited the shelter in person that he realized the little girl whom he had been told was sick, wa…

On November 21, 2022, 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari boarded her school bus and went to school as usual. That afternoon, the bus dropped her off near her Cornelius, North Carolina home. But the next day, the bus went to school without Madalina, and no one at her school has seen her since. The most chilling part of her disappearance? Madalina’s famil…

This is a re-release of our April 2023 episode on Madalina Cojocari. You can listen to our June 2024 update here. Imagine the abject fear a parent would experience after their 11-year-old child has been missing for over three weeks. No one has heard from her, no one has seen her. You’d be climbing the walls, right? Begging investigators and the pub…

After 26 years of marriage, Bonnie Lee Schultz was ready to spread her wings. After being a stay-at-home mom to her two children, Josh and Gretchen, she was working part-time and had just started a second job. She was meeting new people and finding new opportunities. In 1997, Bonnie decided that a more drastic life change was in order: she wanted a…

When Mattie Mitchell was watching her great-grandchildren at their Wichita, Kansas home, she decided to lie down and go to sleep with them. After all, what could be safer than keeping the little ones close? But when Mattie woke up at around 3 am on September 5, 2001, her four-year-old great-grandaughter, Jaquilla Scales was gone. Mattie wasn’t sure…

July 30, 1985 was a hot summer day in Toronto, Ontario, and 8-year-old Nicole Morin planned on spending it at the pool with her friends. The little girl donned her bathing suit, grabbed her beach towel, and said goodbye to her mother, Jeanette. It was around 11 am when Nicole left her penthouse apartment and headed to the elevator to meet her frien…

A 15-year-old boy finishes his nightly chores and goes to bed. But the next morning when his mother tries to wake him up for school, he’s gone. That’s what happened in the early morning hours of February 26, 2024, when Sebastian Rogers seemingly disappeared from his Hendersonville, Tennessee home. What at first seemed to be a teenager walking off i…

A troubled marriage leads to divorce and a bitter custody battle, with two young children caught in the middle. In 2011 Julia Birukova and her two children, 4-year-old Maile and 2-year-old Sky were living in an apartment in Redmond, Washington. On November 6, 2011, Julia and her children were up early. Sky was sick, and she needed to take him to th…

No new episode this week, so in celebration of the release of The Tortured Poet's Department, Taylor Swift's new album, and the song, "Florida," we're re-releasing the episode on Richard Hoagland, the Indianapolis family man who walked away from his wife and kids in 1993 and decided to re-invent himself in-- you guessed it-- Florida. --- Richard Ho…

On December 17, 2022, 19-year-old Kadin Black had dinner with the family he was staying with, the Foust Family. Their son, Ethan, was one of Kadin’s best friends, and the family had taken him in after Kadin had a fight with his father. Though Kadin wasn’t living at his father’s house, he had plans the next day to go over and exercise his dogs. But …

2022 was a rough year for Kadin Black. The popular high school athlete had moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland with his mother, but had recently moved back to his father’s house in Pennsylvania so that he could be closer to his friends. The move, however, came with its own set of challenges. Fights at school led to him being expelled, and a fight w…

When 17-year-old Brianna Maitland didn’t make it home after her shift as a dishwasher at The Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, Vermont, it took nearly a week before police started an investigation. While Brianna was initially dismissed as a troubled runaway, her family knew that something much worse had happened to her. Tips began pouring in, along …

It’s one of the most perplexing missing persons cases in Vermont’s history. On March 19, 2004, 17-year-old Brianna Maitland finished her shift as a dishwasher at the Black Lantern Inn, in Montgomery, Vermont. It was already after 11 pm, and Brianna told co-workers she needed to get home to get some sleep before her shift at a different restaurant t…

When Cory Bigsby reported his 4-year-old son Codi missing on January 31, 2022, his story didn’t seem to add up. According to him, that morning he put Codi to bed around 1 am and checked in on him at 2, but when he woke up around 8:30 am, he found his son’s bed empty. Codi Bigsby was missing, along with his Spider-Man flip flops. Hampton Roads polic…

This is a re-release of our episode covering Cory Bigsby's Indictment. It was originally published in June 2023. 4-year-old Codi Bigsby was reported missing on January 31, 2022, when his father, Cory Bigsby, said he woke up and found his son’s bed empty. A search immediately ensued, and police took Codi’s father, Cory, down to the station for quest…

This is a re-release of our original episode on Codi Bigsby from March 2023. 4-year-old Codi Bigsby was reported missing on January 31, 2022, when his father said he woke up and found his son’s bed empty. A search immediately ensued in their Hampton, Virginia neighborhood, and police took Codi’s father, Cory, down to the station for questioning. Th…

On the afternoon of January 16, 1973, five-year-old Anna Waters had just returned home from kindergarten. The storm that had wreaked havoc in her San Mateo, California town had finally stopped, and she wanted to go play in the backyard. Her mother, Michaele, gave her permission, and Anna pulled on her rain boots and went outside. After about 10 min…

After dealing with a breakup and the sudden loss of her mother, Gretchen Fleming found herself back in her hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. She was staying with family as she tried to get herself back together and figure out her next move. On December 3, 2022, Gretchen told her family that she wasn’t going to be home that night, and she head…

On June 12, 2023, 13-year-old James Yoblonski packed three bags, took his father’s cell phone, and walked out of his home at 12:52 am. He put his belongings into his father’s van, got in, and drove away. The next morning, the van was found abandoned on the highway near Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin, over 25 miles from James’s Reedsb…

Imagine your daughter stops responding to your calls. You know this isn’t like her. Your mother’s instinct knows that something is wrong. Your other daughter agrees that her sister would never just ignore them. You go to the police for help, but you receive none. This is the nightmare that Anita King has been living On March 24, 2020, Anita and her…

On Our Watch Season 2: New Folsom is a deeply-reported narrative podcast series from KQED. It follows the stories of two correctional officers in an elite unit who pay a high price for exposing corruption and abuse by their fellow officers. It’s a story about broken promises and unwritten rules. It’s a story about who gets hurt when the system that…

Phoenix Coldon wanted to spread her wings. After being homeschooled for years, she was ready to be out on her own. After she turned 18, she entered college at the University of Missouri and moved out of her parents’ house. Her junior year found her back in her family’s deeply religious household, however, and Phoenix began to flounder. On December …

This week marks 18 years since Jennifer Kesse disappeared in Orlando, Florida. This week, we're re-releasing our 2022 episode on her case in hopes of helping her name stay out there. Jennifer's parents, Joyce and Drew Kesse also released a statement about their daughter and the current status of their investigation, which we are reading in full bef…

On June 16, 1990, 52-year-old Trevaline Evans put a sign on the door of her antique shop saying, “be back in 2 minutes.” The Llangollen, Wales resident popped over to a nearby store and bought an apple and a banana, then disappeared. There were sightings of a woman matching her description around town at different points that afternoon and evening,…

"While I am gone, remember – everyone is together in thoughts and prayers and time passes quickly. Have faith in me, yourself, everyone." That was just part of a cryptic note that 23-year-old Leah Roberts left her roommate before she packed up and headed out on a journey of self-discovery. On March 9, 2000, Leah set off from her home in Raleigh, No…

This is our top listened-to episode of 2023! Thank you so much for downloading and sharing this interview between Kona and Danielle's sister, Bonnie. We plan to do more interviews with family members this season, so if you'd like to talk to us about your missing loved one, reach out at tips@andthentheyweregone.com. We'll be back soon with season 5!…

On May 15, 1957, 30-year-old Lawrence Bader decided to go fishing. The Akron Ohio-based salesman had been having a rough go of it in his business recently, and Lawrence needed an afternoon to relax. He rented a boat and set off on the calm waters of Lake Erie. Three hours later, a brutal storm hit. The next morning, Lawrence’s battered boat was fou…

Imagine getting into a relationship that is so controlling, that you begin to lose touch with your friends and family. The isolation, while gradual at first, becomes so complete, that it takes nearly three years before anyone realizes that you’ve gone missing. As unbelievable as it may sound, that’s exactly what happened to Fawn Mountain. Fawn was …