Showing results by author "Wondery" in All Categories

We first brought you Ebby's story back in March of 2017. Ebby's mom, Laurie, told us about her frustrating journey to have her daughter's case investigated properly. At the end of our original episode, there was a new team looking into her disappearance. Laurie was hopeful. A little over a year later, there would be a major break in the case when detective Tommy Hudson decided to search areas of the park where Ebby's car had been found. Areas that her family had been told were searched previously. That was when they discovered Ebby's remains just 60 feet from where her car had been found.

Leona Kinsey disappeared from La Grande, Oregon, on October 25, 1999. A friend last saw Leona at a local Walmart. According to her friend, Leona said she planned to meet a man at a nearby grocery store and then stop by her friend's house around 7 PM that night. Leona never showed up at her friend's house and was never seen again. In Part 1, we discussed the circumstances surrounding Leona's disappearance and how those close to her began pointing fingers at others. In the beginning, investigators had many people to look at, but later they began to focus on one man.

In December of 1988, Joan Bernal, her husband, and their children had plans to leave their home in Joliet, Illinois, and head to Texas to visit her husband's family for the holidays. Things didn't go as planned, and they weren't able to bring Joan's children from a previous marriage due to custody issues. According to Joan's husband Gil, they decided to make the trip anyway, and Joan got upset along the way. Gil stated that he dropped her off near a McAlester, Oklahoma bus stop, and gave her some cash to get back to Illinois.

We initially told Paige’s story in February of 2020. Since that time, there have been many developments in her case, including the recovery of her remains and the arrest of the person suspected of seriously harming or killing her. At the time we first aired the podcast, Paige’s family was still looking for answers, distributing flyers, conducting searches, and meeting with law enforcement in the hopes of making progress in bringing Paige home. We left off with a brokenhearted family who had been forever changed by Paige’s disappearance and ten years without answers.

On the evening of February 4, 2003, four-year-old Sofia Juarez was at home in Kennewick, Washington. One of her relatives left the family home to make a quick stop at a nearby convenience store for milk. After he left, Sofia decided to follow him. The bright, bubbly young girl who would have turned five the very next day vanished into the night, never to be seen again. If you have any information about the disappearance of Sofia Juarez, please contact Special Investigator Al Wehner at 509-582-1331.

Leona Kinsey disappeared from La Grande, Oregon, on October 25, 1999. A friend last saw Leona at a local Walmart. According to her friend, Leona said she planned to meet someone at a nearby grocery store and then stop by her friend's house around 7 PM that night. Leona never showed up at her friend's house and was never seen again. Her friend became concerned and later went to check on Leona. She found that Leona wasn't home, and her pets weren't cared for in a way that Leona would have if she planned to leave for any amount of time.

Sometime between May 16 and May 25, 2020, 53-year-old Dawn Blankenheim vanished from Chico, California. No isolated event or indication foreshadowed her disappearance, but like every missing person, Dawn didn't just disappear. There is always more to the story. Dawn had been in the hospital in mid-May and was picked up by a friend after she was discharged. They were spotted at a local bar together over the weekend. Dawn scheduled a rideshare service to get home, then abruptly canceled. No one has ever seen or heard from Dawn again.

On March 31, 2020, 25 year old Kenna Harris packed her backpack with her medications, a yoga mat, and some other belongings, and headed out of her Monroe, Washington home. As you learned in Part 1 of Kenna’s story, she was due to report for her shift at a local Walmart. She usually took a bus to that location but she told the bus driver to go on without her. That is when she left on foot and took some money out of her bank account. Then, she got on a bus headed for Snohomish, Washington. She got off near a shopping center there and was spotted in a Subway.

On the evening of May 9, 2009, just nine days after her 18th birthday, Kelsey Collins left her home in Everett, Washington, to visit a friend in Seattle, approximately 30 miles away. Kelsey was a radiant and intelligent young woman. But Kelsey was still young and naive and never returned home. The nearly fourteen years of looking for her have spanned from teenage innocence and rebellion to the dark, nefarious and ugly underworld of human and sex trafficking. What happened to Kelsey is a story you’ve seen play out in media headlines, but no two stories or victims are the same.

Shane Sprenger disappeared from Vida, Oregon, on November 2, 2021. Shane was a contractor, and on that day, he was working at a job site near McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. Around 9:30 am, Shane left the job and returned to his home in Vida. No one ever saw Shane again. In the days following his disappearance, Shane's truck was found abandoned on a logging road near the Blue River Reservoir, about 16 miles away from his home. The area where they found the vehicle was one of Shane's favorite mushroom picking spots.

January 25, 2017, seemed like any other ordinary day for 58-year-old Robert Barron, a respected business owner of a popular restaurant in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, and a family man. He closed up his restaurant for the evening and then made a quick trip to drive his son home nearby. Robert often spent the night in an apartment above the restaurant so he could be there first thing the next morning for the dough delivery. The delivery driver was accustomed to Robert being there on time for every delivery, but Robert wasn’t there on the morning of January 26.

On April 11, 1981, a 15-year-old girl named Barbara Cotton disappeared from Williston, North Dakota. Barbara's mother, Louise, called around to her friends to see if they had seen her, but no one said they had. Louise reported her daughter missing to the Williston Police Department and sent any tips she heard their way. The weeks and months passed with no sign of Barbara, and her case went ice cold. It didn't seem like much was being done to find Barb, at least to her loved ones; that is how it appeared. Perhaps she had run away?

Last week, we brought you the first two installments of Steve Millis’ story. We explored Steve’s life, the night he disappeared, and several people who were rumored to be involved in his disappearance and had some sort of motive. In today’s episode, titled “Family Ties,” we are going to pick up where we left off with Teresa and how her stories tie back to some of Steve’s own family members. You see, there have been consistent stories about one person that you heard from in Part 1, one of the last known people to see Steve alive.

Ian Eckles was last seen leaving his home on May 16, 2020, headed to go hunting with a friend in the mountains of Washington. Ian never met up with his friend, and no one was able to reach him for days. This sparked a massive search that went on for weeks after Ian’s car was spotted being driven by another man. On June 14, 2020, Ian was still missing, but the man believed to be responsible for his disappearance and murder was apprehended. This man is also believed to have been involved in at least two other deaths. So who is this man, and where is Ian?

We are taking this week off to spend time with our loved ones and the reminder that we are blessed with so much. However, we never take a week off in our minds, and the families with a missing loved one are always in our hearts and thoughts. We decided to re-share an episode from a few years ago about a missing child who disappeared many decades ago, Vinyette Teague. If you have not heard her story, please give it a listen.

Around April 19, 2016, 44-year-old Kelly "Allison" Whiddon disappeared from Panama City Beach, Florida. Allison was in the middle of breaking up with the man she had been dating. This man had a history of violence and threats he promised to make good on. The two got into an altercation in a restaurant, and her boyfriend claimed he never saw her again, changed his story later, and subsequently refused to cooperate with police after they started investigating her disappearance. No one reported Allison missing until the end of May.

We first brought you the story of Johnthan Hall just over two years ago in December 2019. On Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 30-year-old Johnthan Hall went to work with his dad. The two worked together at a maintenance job in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the end of the day, his father dropped him off at home. Johnthan then left for his second job at a local billiards club not too far away. Johnthan was seen at the club that night around 7:30 PM. No one knows precisely when Johnthan left or where he may have gone. Missing along with Johnthan were the items he always carried with him in his backpack.

In early June of 2021, 47-year-old Jamie Valdez and his wife, Anna, had just moved to Booneville, Arkansas, from Texas. Their relationship was on the rocks, and Jamie’s wife said that Jamie left their home on June 9, 2021. An old coworker claims that she saw Jamie 30 miles north of Booneville in Ozark several days later, and the coworker invited him over for dinner with her family. She said he planned to go home and patch things up with his wife. Jamie Valdez has never been seen again.

37-year-old Jesse Conger was last seen leaving his girlfriend’s apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona, on August 14th, 2019. He drove off in his silver Toyota Camry and has never been seen or heard from again. When his girlfriend returned home from work, she found some items missing that pointed to what possibly happened to Jesse, a US Marine Corps veteran who served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than two years have passed since Jesse disappeared, and his loved ones are still desperate to find him.

During the July 4th holiday in 2006, 18-year-old Roxanne Paltauf left home to spend a few days celebrating her anniversary with her boyfriend, a much older man with a lengthy criminal history. The couple checked into a hotel in Austin, Texas, which was the last time Roxanne was ever seen. Her boyfriend later stated that the two got into an argument, and she left with nothing but her state identification. He claimed that he looked for her prior to calling her mother the next day to inform her that Roxanne was missing.