The Generation Why Podcast Blog — missing

In November 2019, authorities in Rexburg, Idaho responded to a phone call regarding the welfare of two children who hadn’t been seen by their extended family for over a month. Seventeen-year-old Tylee Ryan and her seven-year-old adopted brother, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, had been missing since September, 2019 when their mother, Lori Vallow and her new husband, Chad Daybell, moved the family from Arizona to Idaho a just a few weeks before. When officers showed up to the couple’s residence the children were nowhere to be found. They told police that the kids were staying with relatives back in Arizona and...

Over four decades ago sixteen-year-old student, Pamela Maurer, was found raped and murdered by the side of the road near College Street and Maple Avenue in the small village of Lisle, DuPage County, Illinois. The cause of death was ruled as strangulation and a nearby rubber hose found at the crime scene was believed to be the ligature used in her murder. On January 12th, 1976, Maurer had been visiting a friend in the neighbourhood.  When it came time to leave, the teenager decided to head to a nearby McDonalds to buy a soda when she was snatched off the...

On the afternoon of December 12th, 1994, Dwanna Jackson, a mother residing in Michigan, reported her 4-year-old child missing from the Wonderland Mall in Livonia. She claimed that the two had been on a shopping trip when the toddler wandered down a hallway near a Target store and vanished off the face of the earth. (Source) Dwanna quickly alerted an 18 year old mall security guard named Randy, who would go on to take a big interest in the case and eventually host a website dedicated to finding the missing 4-year-old. “She was believable” he said in an interview with...

47 year old mother of one, Adrienne “Ada” Quintal, has been missing from Michigan since last month. (Source) With hunting season just around the corner, Quintal decided that she would do some work on her families cabin out in the woods in Benzie County, North Michigan. She also planned to spend some time there with her boyfriend who would go on to leave the area a day before her disappearance. “She was doing work on the house. She was also just getting ready for hunting and hanging out and enjoying the wildlife.” Her son told journalists. Ada had been going to the...

Seventeen year old Jasmine Mills went missing on the 27th of June after setting off alone to do an odd job for an older male acquaintance. She had been instructed to wake the man at 4AM and help him with various chores, which included cleaning and taking out trash. Jasmine’s mother described her as a sweet and caring girl, carefree and easy going. She was the eldest of four siblings, trusted people easily and saw the best in others. She liked planes and had aspirations of being a pilot one day, but that dream would be taken from her all...