25 Yards - Bessie Walker

She Did Not Wander Off - Ashlea Aldrich

Her family made dozens of calls. They sent emails to tribal leaders. They found her covered in blood in her own apartment. They did everything they were supposed to do. And none of it was enough. In January 2020, Ashlea Aldrich — a 29-year-old member of the Omaha Tribe and mother of two — was found in a cornfield on the reservation in Macy, Nebraska. The official story says she wandered off and died from the cold. But the physical evidence, the documented history of abuse, and the two sets of tracks found at her boyfriend's abandoned SUV tell a very different story. This episode follows the systemic failures that left Ashlea unprotected, the investigation her family says was rushed and negligent, and the community that refuses to let her be forgotten. Her case is still open. If you have information, call the FBI's Omaha field office at 402-493-8688 To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here [https://vanishedvoicespodcast.com/blog/]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

11 Miles After Impact: The Vanishing of Daniel Robinson

On the morning of June 23, 2021, 24-year-old geologist Daniel Robinson left his worksite near a remote well in Buckeye, Arizona, and was never seen again. Three weeks later, his Jeep Renegade was found overturned in a desert ravine — with his clothes, phone, wallet, and keys scattered nearby. But Daniel was gone. What investigators found only deepened the mystery. All airbags had deployed. More than 40 ignition cycles were recorded after the crash. And the odometer showed an 11-mile discrepancy that has never been fully explained. Buckeye Police ruled out foul play early on, but Daniel's father, retired Army veteran David Robinson, refused to accept that answer. He drove over 2,000 miles from South Carolina to Arizona and has spent years conducting his own searches across the unforgiving desert — even recovering the remains of other missing people along the way. Today, Daniel Robinson is still missing. His father is still searching. And the questions surrounding that Jeep, that ravine, and those 11 miles remain unanswered. This is his story, and he deserves to be heard. If you have any information about the disappearance of Daniel Robinson, please contact the Buckeye Police Department tip line at (623) 349-6411 or the family's dedicated tip line at (844) 602-0660. You can also visit pleasehelpfinddaniel.com [http://pleasehelpfinddaniel.com] to learn more and submit tips. Your call could be the one that brings Daniel home. To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here [https://vanishedvoicespodcast.com/blog/]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

25 Yards - Bessie Walker

In August 2021, Bessie Marie Walker — a 27-year-old Western Mono mother of three — vanished from the Big Sandy Rancheria in Auberry, California. For eighteen days, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office chased tips across the county. They searched a dozen locations. They logged nearly a thousand hours. They never found her. Her family did. Twenty-five yards from her mother's front door. Her cause of death remains undetermined. Her case remains unsolved. And just weeks later, the nation turned its full attention to another missing young woman — one who looked nothing like Bessie. This is a story about who gets searched for, who gets found, and who gets forgotten. To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here [https://vanishedvoicespodcast.com/blog/].   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Five Minutes Away - The Case of Sage Smith

On the evening of November 20th, 2012 — the night before Thanksgiving — 19-year-old Sage Smith stepped out of her Charlottesville, Virginia apartment to meet someone for a date. She woke up her roommate just long enough to say she'd be back later. She had plans for the holiday. She had a surprise visit lined up for her stepsisters. For the first time in her life, things were falling into place — her own apartment, a job, cosmetology school, and the freedom to live openly as the person she'd always been. A family member spotted her that evening, walking toward downtown, talking on her phone. She said she'd be "there" in five minutes. She never arrived. Her phone went dark. Calls went straight to voicemail. Thanksgiving came and went without her. And what began as a missing persons investigation would slowly unravel into something far more disturbing — a web of contradictory stories, a person of interest who vanished, a family forced to run their own investigation, and a police department that, by its own admission, dropped the ball. In this episode, we walk through the life Sage built after a childhood in foster care, the night everything changed, the man whose story never stayed the same, and the thirteen-year fight by a grandmother, a father, and a community who refused to let Sage be forgotten. This case has secrets. It has people who aren't telling the truth. And as of 2025, it has a break that nobody saw coming. Sage Smith has been missing since November 20, 2012. If you have any information, contact the Charlottesville Police Department at (434) 970-3373, email cpdtips@charlottesville.gov, or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at (434) 977-4000. A $20,000 reward is available for information leading to an arrest or the recovery of Sage's remains. To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here [https://vanishedvoicespodcast.com/blog/]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

She Always Called - Pepita Redhair

Pepita Madalyn Redhair was 27 years old, a member of the Navajo Nation, a skateboarder, a cook, a student at the University of New Mexico, and a daughter who called her mother every single day. On March 24, 2020, Anita King dropped her daughter off at the home she shared with her boyfriend in Albuquerque, New Mexico — 140 miles from their home in Crownpoint. It was the last time she saw her. And then, the calls stopped. The text messages were never read. And what followed was six years of a mother fighting a system that called her daughter unimportant, a pandemic that became an excuse not to investigate, and a family that refused to let Pepita's name disappear into silence. This week on Vanished Voices, we tell the story of Pepita Redhair — her life, her disappearance, the man who was the last to see her, and the family who has never stopped searching. We also look at the broader crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and why cases like Pepita's fall through the cracks of a system that was never built to protect them. Pepita is still missing. If you have information, please contact the Albuquerque Police Department at 505-768-2020 or the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office at 505-222-1101. A $3,000 reward is available for information leading to answers in her case. To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here [https://vanishedvoicespodcast.com/blog/]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.