On May 19, 1996, Julianne Williams, 24, and Lollie Winans, 26, set out with their golden retriever, Taj, to backpack through Shenandoah National Park. Less than two weeks later, they were reported missing. The Rich Lives of Lollie and Julianne Lollie was from a wealthier family, but friends described her personality as down to earth….
Ashley Reeves was a high school junior who lived in Millstadt, Illinois, with her parents and her younger sister Casey. The 17-year-old did well in school, had many friends, and had a boyfriend named Jeremy who her parents adored. Ashley was eagerly awaiting graduation. Little did she know that just a year before she was…
For nearly six decades, a small Pennsylvania mining town carried a wound that never quite healed. In 1964, a 9-year-old girl walked out of her house on an ordinary school morning and never came home. Her killer’s identity remained a mystery for so long that most people who remembered the case assumed it would stay…
Christine Guenther had a doctor’s appointment scheduled on the afternoon of Monday, October 26, 1981. She had an ear infection a couple of months earlier and her doctor had asked her to come in for a routine checkup so he could make sure her ear was completely healed. The 15-year-old walked to the bus stop…
Denise Clinton was excited to visit her grandparents, Chelcie and Dorothy Reynolds, and stay with them at the motel they managed in Kansas City, Missouri. The 9-year-old, who had just returned home to Independence, Missouri, after a family vacation in California with her parents and 6-year-old sister, was looking forward to seeing her grandparents and…
On the crisp evening of November 18, 1987, in the small rural community of Ina, Jefferson County, Illinois, a family was packing for a fresh new start. Keith and Elaine Dardeen — who both went by their middle names — had lived in a modest beige-and-white mobile home just outside town for about a year….
On February 8, 2002, 42-year-old bookkeeper and mom of two, Brenda Heist, dropped her kids off at school and vanished into thin air. All of her personal belongings were left behind in their Lititz, Pennsylvania, home. A massive search ensued as frantic friends and family members feared the worst. They insisted that Brenda would not…
On December 18, 1994, Alison Botha was 27 years old, working as an insurance broker in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and living an unremarkable life. By the next morning, she would be known around the world — not as a victim, but as one of the most extraordinary survivors in modern memory. An Ordinary Saturday…