50 Shocking Missing Person Cases in 50 States | Part 1

50 Missing Person Cases in 50 States Part 1

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most famous missing persons case in each American state. As this is part 1, we’ll be doing the first 25 states in alphabetical order, from Alabama to Missouri.

Alabama

Sherry Lynn Marler

A dollar for a soda was all it took for 12-year-old Sherry Lynn Marler to slip away. On June 6, 1984, the young girl’s stepfather gave her $1 to buy a soda at a nearby gas station while he ran errands. She never returned. As months passed, strange tips trickled in. Witnesses across the deep South reported spotting the young girl at various truck stops, and she was usually seen with a husky, middle-aged man. Despite these haunting sightings, law enforcement could never track her down. Today, Marler’s heartbroken family still searches for answers. Who really took Sherry? Unfortunately, we may never know. This dark, enduring mystery continues to haunt the state of Alabama, leaving a desperate plea for closure.

Alaska

Thomas Hale Boggs & Nick Begich

The freezing Alaskan wilderness swallowed a twin-engine plane in October 1972. Onboard were US House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and Congressman Nick Begich, both of whom were campaigning right before a crucial election. When their flight vanished, it triggered the largest search and rescue operation in United States history at the time. Military aircraft scoured the unforgiving terrain for 39 agonizing days, yet they found nothing. No wreckage, no debris. Nothing. With no hint of their survival, Congress eventually declared the missing politicians dead the following December. This unprecedented tragedy forced immediate changes in aviation safety, legally mandating emergency locator transmitters in all civilian aircraft. Yet, despite this sweeping legacy, the final resting place of Boggs and Begich remains one of America’s greatest mysteries.

Arizona

Mikelle Biggs

The cheerful jingle of an ice cream truck became the backdrop to a nightmare. On January 2, 1999, 11-year-old Mikelle Biggs waited eagerly near the ice cream truck while her sister Kimber ran inside for just a moment. When she returned just ninety seconds later, Mikelle was gone. Her bicycle lay abandoned in the street, its wheels still spinning, and loose change was scattered across the pavement. The swift disappearance prompted aggressive neighborhood sweeps and interrogations, and the chilling scene captured national media attention. Unfortunately, nothing came of it. Even decades later, Mikelle’s case remains an open investigation for Arizona law enforcement. Her family refuses to give up hope, fighting tirelessly for the bright young girl who vanished while waiting for her older sister.

Arkansas

Morgan Nick

A lively Little League baseball game in Alma turned tragic on June 9, 1995. Six-year-old Morgan Nick was playing with friends just yards from her mother, but witnesses later recalled a creepy man in a red truck watching the children. Moments later, Morgan was gone. Her friends later said that they briefly left her alone and returned to the bleachers without her, as she needed to get sand out of her shoes. The subsequent search gripped the entire state and fundamentally changed how Arkansas handles missing children. Her heartbreaking disappearance inspired the Morgan Nick Foundation, and the state named its AMBER Alert system in her honor. Investigators have chased thousands of tips over the decades, yet Morgan remains missing.

California

Kristin Smart

This 19-year-old Cal Poly student was walking back from a Kappa Chi fraternity party on the early morning of May 25, 1996 when she disappeared. She was last seen with a man named Paul Flores. Tragically, campus security delayed calling actual law enforcement for days, believing she had simply gone on an unannounced vacation. Unfortunately, this fatal administrative error allowed crucial physical evidence to disappear. Kristin’s case sparked outrage and directly inspired the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act, forcing colleges to report missing students as soon as possible. Fast forward to 2022, when Paul Flores was finally convicted of her murder and handed a heavy prison sentence. While justice was technically served, Kristin’s remains have still never been found, leaving a painful void for her family.

Colorado

Christopher Abeyta

Snatched directly from his own crib in July 1986, seven-month-old Christopher Abeyta disappeared in the dead of night. His parents were sleeping just feet away in their Colorado Springs home. The family had left their front door unlocked and a stealthy kidnapper bypassed the parents entirely, taking the infant without making a sound. The brazen crime immediately garnered heavy national media coverage. Detectives dug deep into the lives of family members and local suspects, believing that someone close to Christopher had taken him for personal reasons, but they found no concrete answers. It stands as one of the most high-profile and baffling unsolved infant abductions in American history.

Connecticut

Billy Smolinski Jr.

Leaving his beloved dog behind in his truck, Billy Smolinski vanished from Waterbury in August 2004. When his worried family tried to report him missing, they hit a wall of annoying bureaucracy. Police told them to wait, initially refusing to take the disappearance seriously as Billy was 31 years old and was assumed to have voluntarily disappeared. Frustrated but determined, his family plastered countless flyers across the state. Their fierce advocacy changed history, directly leading to the creation of Billy’s Law. This crucial federal legislation bridges the gap between missing persons databases and unidentified remains networks, revolutionizing how agencies share information. Sadly, the man who inspired this nationwide reform remains lost.

Delaware

Nefertiri Trader

Many of the abductions on this list were quiet affairs. This was not. 33-year-old Nefertiri Trader was violently attacked in her own driveway and forced into her silver Acura by an unidentified man. A neighbor witnessed the horrific kidnapping, but the mysterious man sped away into the darkness before anyone could intervene. Unfortunately, the panicked neighbor failed to call the police right away. Neither Nefertiri nor her vehicle have been spotted since that terrible night. The sudden disappearance remains a highly publicized open investigation in Delaware, and her heartbroken mother continually pleads for the public to come forward with any hidden knowledge. As of now, the chilling mystery stays open, with locals desperately waiting for any sign of Nefertiri or her car.

Florida

Jennifer Kesse

24-year-old Jennifer Kesse failed to show up for work on the morning of January 24, 2006, and her spotless car was later discovered abandoned miles from her Orlando condo. It’s creepy enough, but this baffling case is infamous for its deeply frustrating security footage. A camera captured a phantom suspect parking Kesse’s missing vehicle and walking away, yet the suspect’s face was perfectly obscured by a metal fence post in every single frame of the video. Experts consider it some of the unluckiest security footage in criminal history. Investigators exhaustively searched nearby lakes, dense woods, and local construction sites, but turned up empty-handed every single time. Kesse remains missing to this day - a frustrating reality that might have been avoided if those posts were installed just a few inches to the right.

Georgia

Tara Grinstead

A beloved high school teacher and former beauty queen, Tara Grinstead vanished from her Ocilla home in October 2005. Her sudden disappearance quickly became the largest case in the history of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Detectives found a strange latex glove with male DNA in her front yard, but the trail went ice cold for over a decade. It took the hit podcast “Up and Vanished” to finally break the silence, with the show generating a tidal wave of new and renewed public interest. The increased pressure finally led to the arrest of two former students of the school. Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes were implicated in her murder, admitting that they burned her body in a remote orchard. Tragically, her full physical remains were never successfully recovered.

Hawaii

Peter Kema Jr.

Known affectionately as “Peter Boy,” this 6-year-old’s 1997 disappearance exposed horrific flaws in Hawaii’s child welfare system. His abusive parents claimed they gave him to a family friend on the Big Island, but investigators quickly realized this woman did not actually exist. The public instantly suspected foul play, sparking massive local protests demanding justice for the boy. The tragic saga haunted the island community for two agonizing decades. Finally, his father confessed that Peter Boy died of septic shock stemming from a severe arm injury and that he threw the child’s body into the ocean. This dark closure ended Hawaii's most notorious missing child mystery, but it also ensured that his body would never be found and given a proper burial.

Idaho

DeOrr Kunz Jr.

A rural family camping trip turned into a nightmare when two-year-old DeOrr Kunz vanished on July 10, 2015. The terrifying disappearance happened in the rugged mountains of Leadore, and with four adults present. The story got immediately suspicious when his parents, great-grandfather, and a family friend all gave wildly conflicting stories to local detectives. A massive operation immediately scoured the dangerous Idaho wilderness, with search teams using the likes of tracking dogs and helicopters, yet they found no trace of the missing toddler. The confusing investigation placed heavy scrutiny on the adults at the campsite, but despite relentless interrogations and intense public pressure, nobody has ever been officially charged with a crime.

Illinois

Diamond & Tionda Bradley

Returning home from work in 2001, a Chicago mother found her South Side apartment eerily empty. Her children, three-year-old Diamond and ten-year-old Tionda, were gone. A mysterious note left behind claimed that the girls were visiting a nearby playground. However, nobody at the park reported seeing them. Their heartbreaking disappearance sparked an unprecedented local search effort, morphing into one of Chicago’s most deeply felt mysteries. The community rallied, plastering the girls’ faces on flyers across the city, and law enforcement chased countless dead-end leads spanning the entire country. Unfortunately, the trail quickly went cold and remains cold to this day. The devastated family continues to hold annual vigils to keep the spotlight on the missing sisters.

Indiana

Lauren Spierer

Disappearing on the early morning of June 3, 2011, Lauren Spierer became a cautionary tale of unchecked college nightlife. The 20-year-old Indiana University student vanished in Bloomington after a heavy night of drinking, leaving a friend’s apartment barefoot and without her phone. Her case drew fierce national media coverage, generating thousands of anonymous tips regarding her whereabouts. Eager student volunteers and law enforcement scoured the surrounding campus areas for weeks, and several men who were with her that night were investigated, but nobody was ever charged. The frustrating case remains an intensely agonizing mystery, and Lauren’s family continues their tireless fight for justice and answers.

Iowa

Johnny Gosch

12-year-old Johnny Gosch was delivering newspapers on the morning of September 5, 1982 when he famously disappeared. He left behind one critical clue - his abandoned red wagon, full of undelivered papers. Young Johnny’s tragic disappearance profoundly shifted the very fabrics of American culture. He became one of the first missing children featured on milk cartons, revolutionizing how the public spotted abducted kids, and his desperate mother transformed into a national safety advocate. The case has spawned countless wild conspiracy theories over the decades, with many suspecting that an organized kidnapping ring was responsible. But despite the milk cartons, and despite the endless investigations and supposed sightings, Johnny’s true fate remains unknown.

Kansas

Randy Leach

A wild pre-graduation bonfire in the rural town of Linwood ended in a baffling double disappearance in 1988. 17-year-old Randy Leach vanished from the party that night, and so did his vehicle. He was driving his mother’s gray Dodge sedan, but neither the teenager nor the large family vehicle have ever been found. Wild rumors quickly swirled around the terrified local community. Some locals claimed that satanic cults were operating in the area, while others believed that Randy witnessed a dangerous drug deal gone wrong and was silenced. Police dragged nearby rivers and searched local fields, hoping to find some evidence of either Leach or his vehicle, but with no success. It remains the most frustrating cold case in the state of Kansas.

Kentucky

Crystal Rogers

An abandoned car with a flat tire found on the Bluegrass Parkway sparked a sprawling murder mystery in 2015. Its owner, 35-year-old Crystal Rogers, was gone, yet all her personal belongings were still sitting inside the vehicle. Her disappearance is heavily intertwined with a string of other local unsolved murders. For example, her own father was shot and killed by a sniper while preparing for a hunting trip. Needless to say, the incredibly complex case drew intense FBI involvement. Justice was finally served in 2025 when Rogers’s ex-boyfriend, Brooks Houck, was convicted of murder. Two accomplices, Joseph Lawson and Lawson’s father, Steve, were both convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence. While justice was served, no trace of Rogers has ever been found.

Louisiana

Wesley Dale Morgan

A quick trip inside to make a sandwich cost Ruby Havard everything in 1981. By the time she returned from making the food, her two-year-old son, Wesley Dale Morgan, had vanished from the front porch of his rural Clinton home. The chilling case has endured decades of bizarre twists. At one point, a convicted serial killer named Tommy Lynn Sells confessed to murdering the child. However, this confession was eventually dismissed by the police for being unreliable. The heartbreaking disappearance remains a haunting cornerstone of Louisiana’s cold case files. His mother has never stopped searching for her precious boy, holding onto the belief that Wesley is still alive and out there somewhere, albeit now a grown man.

Maine

Ayla Reynolds

Twenty-month-old Ayla Reynolds disappeared from her father’s Maine house on December 17, 2011. It seemed like a brazen crime, but police quickly ruled out a random abduction after discovering large amounts of Ayla’s blood inside the basement of the house. The grotesque find instantly escalated the case into the largest criminal investigation in Maine’s history. Law enforcement officers relentlessly searched frozen rivers and dense local woods for the girl, but to no success. A judge officially declared the missing toddler legally dead in 2017, prompting her devastated mother to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the father. Despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence against him, he has never been charged with her tragic disappearance.

Maryland

The Lyon Sisters

A simple walk to the Wheaton Plaza mall shattered the illusion of suburban safety in March 1975. That’s when sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyon vanished without a trace. Witnesses reported seeing a sketchy man with a tape recorder bothering the sisters, but these reports didn’t lead anywhere, and the trail went frustratingly cold for exactly four decades. Finally, a relentless detective connected a convicted criminal to the notorious crime. Lloyd Welch, who had a long and disgusting history with crimes involving children, was officially indicted and convicted of murdering the girls in 2017. While justice was technically served in court, their innocent bodies remain missing, and the horrible trauma lingers heavily in the quiet community to this day.

Massachusetts

Joan Risch

Back in 1961, Joan Risch vanished from her wealthy Lincoln suburban home. She left behind a horrifying crime scene. The kitchen walls were heavily smeared with blood, and a clear trail led from the house to the driveway, implying that she had been taken away. To make matters worse, it was Risch’s four-year-old daughter who found the house in this state after returning from a playdate. But then came the major plot twist straight out of “Gone Girl.” Investigators quickly found that Joan had recently checked out several library books about murders and missing persons, many of which detailed elaborate ways to stage a disappearance. Did she fake her own bloody murder to escape her life, or was she actually attacked? The fascinating case remains a legendary unsolved mystery in New England true crime.

Michigan

Jimmy Hoffa

This isn’t just the most popular missing persons case in Michigan. It’s probably the most popular missing persons case in American lore. Jimmy Hoffa, the incredibly powerful Teamsters union leader who had powerful ties with the mafia, disappeared from a restaurant parking lot in 1975. His vanishing defined the FBI’s massive battle against organized crime for an entire generation. Most people assume that he was murdered by the mafia. But no one knows just what happened, and stories of his final resting place are legendary. Some claim he was buried under Giants Stadium, while others think he was given concrete shoes and thrown into the lake. In reality, it’s very likely that his body was incinerated. Either way, we’ll likely never know for sure.

Minnesota

Brandon Swanson

19-year-old Brandon Swanson called his parents for a ride home after crashing his car into a ditch. At the time, he was walking through some dark fields and guiding his parents to his location. But suddenly he yelled an expletive, and the call went completely dead. A search later found his abandoned car, but there were no signs of Brandon anywhere. Unfortunately, police initially delayed their search because he was a legal adult, eating up valuable time that could have led to a result. This frustrating inaction directly led to the passage of Brandon’s Law, which requires Minnesota police to immediately take missing adult reports seriously. But it was too late for Brandon, and his true fate in those dark rural fields remains a chilling unsolved mystery to this day.

Mississippi

Leigh Occhi

In the terribly sad case of Leigh Occhi, Hurricane Andrew provided the perfect cover for a brutal murder. The thirteen-year-old vanished from her Tupelo home in 1992 after her mother left for work. Upon returning, she found the house in a state of horror, with blood smeared on the walls and large pools sitting on the floor. The terror only escalated weeks later when Leigh’s bloody glasses were mailed directly to the home. The chilling package completely terrified the local town and baffled investigators, lending a terrifying personal angle to the disappearance. Why take Occhi? And why taunt the family with her glasses? Disturbingly, suspicion has heavily surrounded her mother over the long decades, with police questioning her and even subjecting her a polygraph (which she failed). However, no formal charges have ever been filed.

Missouri

The Springfield Three

Capping off the first half of our list isn’t one disappearance, but three. Known as The Springfield Three, the missing persons are Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Suzie Streeter, and Suzie’s friend, Stacy McCall. The two teenage girls were sleeping over at Levitt’s house, but come the morning, all three were gone. However, their purses and personal belongings were still inside the house, and the family dog was found highly agitated, which strongly suggests that they were taken or left against their will. The house itself was undisturbed, the only sign of a struggle being a broken porch light. The terrifying case remains a massive unsolved mystery in Missouri history, with police and locals left chasing rumors. Nobody has ever been arrested, and the three women have yet to be found.

Do you think you have the answers? Let us know in the comments below!