Vanished Voices, The Overlooked

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.

Benita Long: Missing from the System

Benita Desiree Long was 40 years old, a member of the Yakama Nation, and actively working toward sobriety when she was dropped off at the El Corral Motel in Toppenish, Washington, on March 26, 2022. She made one phone call to her sister afterward. Then silence. For three years, her family searched, organized vigils, and called a police department that never called back. What they didn't know — what no one told them until a journalist uncovered it in 2025 — was that Benita's name had never been entered into NamUs, the federal database built specifically to match missing people with unidentified remains. In this episode, we tell Benita's story and investigate the systemic failure that left her invisible to the one tool designed to bring people home. We also examine the broader crisis on and around the Yakama Reservation, where Indigenous women go missing at four times the rate of white women and a local newspaper has had to crowdsource its own list of the vanished. We have to ask, why are the people most likely to go missing, the least likely to be looked for 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.

Baltimore's Blind Eye: The Case of Phylicia Barnes (part two)

On the morning of April 20th, 2011, workers near the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River spotted something in the water. It was Phylicia. In Part Two of our Phylicia Barnes episode, we cover the discovery of her body, the homicide ruling, and the man investigators believed was responsible. We walk through three separate trials spanning nearly a decade — a conviction, an overturn, a mistrial, a dismissal, and a final acquittal. We talk about what that process cost the Barnes family. And we talk about the extraordinary legacy they built in Phylicia's name when the legal system gave them nothing else. Closed is not the same as solved. And solved is not the same as just. If you haven't listened to Part One yet — start there. This story deserves to be heard from the beginning. If you have information about Phylicia's murder, contact Baltimore Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP. You can remain completely anonymous. Resources: — Black and Missing Foundation: blackandmissinginc.com — Sovereign Bodies Institute: sovereignbodies.org — National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: missingkids.org | 1-800-843-567 To see more about this case, as well as the full list of sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here [https://crimeclueless.blogspot.com/]. 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.