And Then They Were Gone

On the morning of August 27, 1992, the remnants of Hurricane Andrew were heading toward Tupelo, Mississippi. Inside a small house on Honey Locust Drive, a thirteen-year-old girl named Leigh Occhi was home alone, still in her nightgown. She had an open house at her middle school later that day, and her mom had just left for work. 

Around 8:30, her mother was worried about the storm, so called home to check on Leigh, but there was no answer. She called again. Still no answer. So she made the mile and a half drive home. She'd been gone less than an hour, but when she got home, Leigh was gone. 

In the thirty-four years since that morning, there has never been an arrest, but there have been a few people who have never quite been ruled out. Can new searches finally bring the answers that have been hidden for over three decades?

If you have any information about the disappearance of Leigh Occhi, please contact the Tupelo Police Department at (662) 841-6491, or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at 1-800-773-TIPS.

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Sometime in the early morning hours of April 6, 1986, someone knocked on the door of a small home just off Route 66 in Gallup, New Mexico. A nine-year-old girl named Anthonette Cayedito got out of bed. By the time the sun rose, she was gone. There have been many versions of what happened between the knock and when Anthonette’s family realized she was missing, but what we do know is that there was no forced entry, no struggle, and nothing was taken– except for Anthonette. A three-day search of Gallup and the land around it turned up nothing at all.

The next four decades would bring sightings, changing stories, and even what many believe is a confession. But to this day, Anthonette Cayedito remains missing.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Anthonette Cayedito, please contact the Gallup Police Department at (505) 863-9365, or the FBI's Albuquerque Division at (505) 889-1300. You can also submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

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Around noon on July 16, 1996, a 36-year-old writer named Susan Walsh told her family that she was going to run out to the pay phone down the block and make a call. She left behind her purse. She left behind her beeper. She left behind her medication and even her cigarettes.

No one ever saw her again. 

Susan wasn’t just anyone who vanished. She was a journalist who wrote about things like the Russian mob’s grip on the go-go bars where she herself had danced, and the strange world of people in New York City who called themselves vampires. So when she disappeared, there was no shortage of lurid headlines and theories. Maybe she got too close to the wrong story. Maybe it was the vampires. Maybe it was someone much closer to home.

30 years later, we still don’t know which of those, if any, is true.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Susan Walsh, please contact the Nutley Police Department at (973) 284-4940. 

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On the night of August 31, 1976, a three-year-old girl crept out of bed and witnessed her father wrap his hands around her mother's throat, push her against the wall, and drag her out of sight. The next morning, her father, Ralph Otto, told her and her sister that their mother, 24-year-old Patty Otto, wasn’t coming back.

For years, Suzanne wasn’t sure what she had seen that night, but as she became an adult, she started questioning it more and more. Then, in 2021 a Facebook post turned everything she thought she knew about her mother’s disappearance completely on end. Now, she’s fighting three different states to find out what really happened to Patty Otto that night. 

If you have any information about the disappearance of Patty Otto, please contact the Lewiston Police Department at (208) 746-0171. If you have any information about the identity of the Finley Creek Jane Doe, found near La Grande, Oregon in 1978, please contact the Oregon State Police. 

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This episode originally aired in 2024

When 13-year-old Bianca Piper got into an argument with her mother, Shannon Tanner, over doing the dishes, Shannon put her in the car, drove her a mile up the road, and told her to walk home. While this may seem like an odd form of punishment, it was actually something that had been recommended by Bianca’s therapist. But on March 10, 2005, Bianca never made it home. 

Investigators in Foley, Missouri performed an extensive search but uncovered almost no clues regarding the missing girl. Over the years, they’ve investigated many theories, including the possibility of Bianca’s disappearance being related to those of other children in Lincoln County. Was Bianca abducted by a stranger, or was the reason behind her disappearance closer to home?

Anyone with information regarding Bianca Piper’s disappearance is urged to submit a tip through the Lincoln County Sheriff’s website or through their tipline at 636-462-6513.

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In the early morning hours of December 10, 1999, an 18-year-old UCLA freshman finished playing a computer game in his dorm room, stepped into the hallway to high-five the friend he'd been playing against, and walked back toward his own room. 

When his roommate woke up the next morning, Michael Negrete was gone.

Bloodhounds traced his scent to a bus stop a few blocks away, but then the trail just stopped. Michael hadn’t been in trouble; he hadn’t been depressed; he hadn’t been running with a bad crowd. There were absolutely no red flags in his life, and nothing that would lead anyone to believe he wouldn’t finish his first semester of college and go home with everyone else. 

In over 26 years there's been no body, no arrest, no confirmed sighting, and not a single dollar taken out of his bank account. Police have never named a suspect, and they have never found Michael.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Michael Negrete, please contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, and reference case number 0199003533. You can also contact the UCLA Police Department at (310) 825-1491.

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On the evening of January 2, 1999, two sisters stood on their street in Mesa, Arizona, waiting for the ice cream truck. The older girl, who was 11, had two quarters clutched in her hand. Her little sister, who was 9, got cold and ran inside — just for a minute. When she came back out, the bike her sister had been sitting on was lying in the road, one wheel still slowly spinning. The two quarters were on the pavement nearby.

And Mikelle Biggs was gone. 

The whole thing happened in about ninety seconds. Search dogs would later follow her scent a few feet from that spot, and then lose it completely. Police collected over 800 pieces of evidence and chased more than 10,000 tips, But nearly three decades later, Mikelle has never been found.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Mikelle Biggs, please contact the Mesa Police Department Homicide Unit at 480-644-6195, or by email at [email protected]. You can also leave an anonymous tip with Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS (480-948-6377). 

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Sometime in the pre-dawn hours of October 13, 2018, a 16-year-old girl walked out of her family's home in Chalfont, California and into the dark. It was a cold morning, but she wasn't wearing a jacket. She didn’t take her glasses, and she left her phone and money behind. She left everything.

The last person to see her inside the house was her stepmother, who says she watched Karlie Gusé lying in bed at 5:48 in the morning. But less than two hours later, Karlie was gone. This is a case that has torn a family in half because some of the people who loved Karlie most do not believe the story they've been told about that night.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Karlie Gusé, please contact the Mono County Sheriff's Office at (760) 932-7549, option 7, or the FBI. 

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December 12, 1990 was the night before Norine Brown’s 32nd birthday. Late that night, the mother of two told her husband she was running out to the grocery store to buy ingredients for Christmas cookies. She grabbed some cash and got into her station wagon.

The following morning, her car was found in the Pathmark parking lot a mile from her home. It was locked and there were Christmas presents wrapped inside, but Norine Higuchi Brown was never seen again. Her case quickly went cold, but the people who loved Norine never gave up searching for answers, even when it seemed as though the rest of the world moved on. 

If you have any information about the disappearance of Norine Higuchi Brown, please contact the Nassau County Police Department at (516) 573-8800. For ongoing updates, her supporters maintain the Find Norine page on Facebook. 

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On May 15, 2026, news broke that Gretchen Fleming's remains had been positively identified. That same day, it was also announced that Preston Pierce had been arrested on charges related to her murder. This story is developing, so this week we have a mini update on the charges and what is happening next on the case.

What follows is our original episode on Gretchen Fleming from February 23, 2024.

After dealing with a breakup and the sudden loss of her mother, Gretchen Fleming found herself back in her hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. She was staying with family as she tried to get herself back together and figure out her next move.

On December 3, 2022, Gretchen told her family that she wasn’t going to be home that night, and she headed out to a local bar. After going to a second bar with a friend, Gretchen walked out and was never seen again.

Did the friend, who later turned in Gretchen’s purse and cell phone know something about her disappearance, or was it the man she was seen leaving the last bar with who had something to hide? For over a year, the small town of Parkersburg has been abuzz with theories of what happened that night, and continue to hold out hope that someday soon, they will find out who really knows what happened to Gretchen Fleming.

Anyone with information regarding Gretchen Fleming’s disappearanc is asked to call lead Detective James Zimmerman at 304-424-1072 or the Police Department at 304-424-8444.

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