The Vanished Podcast

On March 8, 2023, 27-year-old Kay-Alana Turner stayed at a friend’s home in Silsbee, Texas. Kay-Alana’s friend, Brittany, noticed that she hadn’t been sleeping well, and something appeared to be troubling Kay-Alana. The following morning, Brittany left for work, believing Kay-Alana was asleep. As the day wore on, Brittany kept trying to contact Kay-Alana, but something was off with the way that he...

On August 14, 2003, 40-year-old William "Arlin" Bynum was at a bar and grill in Big Spring, Texas. Big Spring is where Arlin was born, but he was a stranger, having lived his entire life outside of the small town. Arlin enjoyed the evening having drinks with friends. He was last seen walking toward his truck on the morning of August 15, shortly before the bar closed. After that, the trail ends. Th...

29-year-old Kevin Bass disappeared from Milledgeville, Georgia, in the early morning hours of May 27, 2020. Kevin had last spoken to a friend around 5 AM and then disappeared. Someone thought they may have seen him on foot that morning around 5:30 AM, but they couldn’t be sure that it was actually Kevin. A couple of friends said that Kevin had been at their house the night before and left early th...

Theresa Hartley, a Florida native living in St. Augustine, was learning how to live life on her own after her husband passed away several years earlier. On March 11, 2023, she vanished, supposedly while in the company of a friend looking for firewood in the Ocala National Forest. But when she was reported missing to police on March 15 by another friend, the details didn't add up. In a real-life ho...

Last week, we shared Part 1 of Joshua Simiskey's story. 41-year-old Joshua Simiskey vanished under bizarre circumstances in October of 2019. He had given all his belongings to a woman he had recently met. She claimed that he had offered the items for her hand in marriage while on a spiritual journey. But then, Josh was picked up by park rangers inside Olympic National Park, walking barefoot early...

In the late summer of 2019, 41-year-old Joshua Simiskey left his father's home in Tacoma, Washington, and headed for Port Angeles, about 2 hours away. Josh stayed there for several weeks and told his family he planned to go on a spiritual journey. Josh met a woman during his time in Port Angeles, and things got weird. The last known communication from Josh was a voicemail that he left for his fath...

On May 9, 1991, a police officer from the Lynnwood, Washington Police Department responded to a call about a missing person. The call came from Thanh Phung, and he told police that his 19-year-old daughter, Nguyet Thu Phung, or Wiki as most people called her, did not come home from work that day. He said that her boyfriend had picked her up early that morning and that by 11 AM, her employer had ca...

October 21, 1973, was a Sunday. Typically, 32-year-old Virginia Erickson would attend church on Sundays, where she played the piano. But on that particular Sunday, Virginia and her husband, David, were going hunting instead. Virginia and David's nephew picked up their six children that morning from their home in Sweet Home, Oregon, and brought them to church. When the children returned, their moth...

Sometime in March 1976, 20-year-old Brian Vargo vanished from Austin, Texas. He had unenrolled from all of his classes at the University of Texas at Austin at the end of February, just a few weeks prior to his disappearance. He indicated in his application to unenroll that he intended to return to classes in the summer quarter of 1976. However, Brian seemingly vanished into thin air and has not be...

Last week, we brought you the first installment of Casi Pogue’s story. You learned about Casi’s life, struggles, and how she disappeared after leaving a hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, on July 5, 2020. Casi was spotted exiting the facility that evening and speaking to someone in a van. She even entered the van for a few minutes but then got out and left the area alone on foot. Who was that...

It was the July 4th holiday weekend of 2020 when 40-year-old Casi Pogue found herself in the emergency room at Greenville Memorial Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. She had been there not just once but twice throughout the weekend. The second time, Casi was taken by EMS after neighbors found her acting disoriented. On the evening of July 5th, Casi left the hospital. Casi was spotted on surve...

This episode originally aired on June 15, 2021. Over the last two weeks, we’ve continued to tell you the story of the disappearances of Angela Mack and her son, Mikey. Yesterday, you heard an expert fire investigator discuss the plausibility of the theory that Angie and Mikey were burned in Clarence Krusen’s home furnace. Was it possible that their bodies were completely destroyed, leaving no...

This episode originally aired on June 14, 2021. Today, we’re taking a look at another aspect of the developments in this case, the furnace that law enforcement alleges Clarence Krusen used to dispose of Angie and Mikey. Is this theory even possible? Support us by supporting our sponsors! Listen ad-free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad-free listening. Availa...

This episode originally aired on June 8, 2021. In early April, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office announced that they had solved and closed the 2002 disappearances of 20-year-old Angela Mack and her son, Thomas “Mikey” Rettew. Our last episode explored the dramatic turn of events in Angela and Mikey’s mysterious disappearances since we originally aired their story in March. Today, we’re continuing...

This episode was originally published on June 7, 2021. Three months ago, we brought you the story of the disappearance of Angela Mack and her son Thomas "Mikey" Rettew from a small town in northwest Arkansas. No one knew who had seen Angela and Mikey last or under what circumstances. Our records requests with law enforcement were ignored, and our efforts to conduct an in-depth interview with the i...

This episode first aired on March 8, 2021. Angie and Mikey’s story was challenging to cobble together from bits of memories, letters, and tiny threads of verifiable information regarding when they were last seen and who they were with. When we published this story, we had no idea what was about to happen next, and that a case where we began with almost nothing would then turn into an entire series...

On the afternoon of April 26th, 2010, 16-year-old Alexandria Joy Lowitzer, or Ali as she was known, got off of her school bus across from her home in Spring, Texas. Ali, a sophomore at Spring High School, wanted to walk up to her new workplace, The Burger Barn. She had a paycheck to collect and she told her mom she might be able to pick up a shift that afternoon. Her mom, Jo Ann, was reluctant bec...

In the spring of 1982, 22-year-old Diana Avera was sent to Searcy Hospital, a mental health facility in southern Alabama. Diana was arrested for disorderly conduct in Foley, Alabama, where she lived. The details of her arrest are unknown because we only truly know what happened after her arrest. Diana had several mental health diagnoses, and the decision was made to send her to the mental health f...

Last week, we shared Part 1 of Dorothy Goroshko's story. You learned about Dorothy's life from her sons, John and Rick. Rick and John's lives were never easy, not before their mother disappeared and not after. Despite Dorothy's faults, Rick wants to find her, and John believes he deserves an answer. They lost their mother at a critical time in their lives. Rick and John were still kids, left to wo...

On June 4, 1975, Dorothy Goroshko went out to have drinks with some girlfriends in Boston, MA. Her three sons, ages 21, 14, and 12, were at home that evening and went to bed that night, not thinking anything was amiss. The following morning, Dorothy wasn't there. The younger two boys got themselves off to school and figured that their mother must have spent the night with a friend and she would be...

Last month, we shared Ruth Egnoski’s story with you. It was a complicated story to piece together from newspaper archives and what people could remember so many decades later. It felt as though there were many holes in the story that we may never get to fill in due to the passage of time. We couldn’t even nail down what year Ruth vanished.  We had submitted several record requests to the Dela...

On January 27, 2022, 23-year-old Angelina Morales got a pizza and went to her great aunt's house in Santa Ana, California, to share a meal with her. No one quite knows what happened after this, but others reported seeing Angelina around Santa Ana in early February. Then, Angelina's friends and family realized that no one could find her. Angelina has never been seen again, and what happened to her...

Last week, we brought you the first part of James Lewis' story. Jim Lewis was a decorated veteran who had recently retired after serving in the United States Army for 25 years. Jim and his wife Patsy purchased a home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which was supposed to be their forever home, after moving all over the US and the world for many years. They were putting their roots down finally, an...

On October 3, 1982, 42-year-old James Lewis left his home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Jim told his family he planned to drive to Vero Beach, FL, for a job interview. Jim was a decorated veteran who had recently retired from the Army. He was a skilled pilot looking for something to do in the next phase of his life post-retirement. He was interviewing for a position ferrying airplanes from a de...

Christopher Abeyta was just seven months old when he disappeared from his crib in his Colorado Springs, CO, home on July 15, 1986. For over 30 years, his family has continued to search and fight for justice. In recent years, a person of interest was identified. In Part 2, you will hear about the legal battle between this person of interest and the Abeyta family. We will also discuss some other rec...