And Then They Were Gone

It was the beginning of the Martin Luther King Junior holiday weekend in Wilmington, North Carolina, and 30-year-old Ebonee Spears was not doing well. Ebonee, who had been diagnosed with Lupus the year before, had seemingly been having negative reactions to her medication. The bright, friendly mother of one was acting disoriented and paranoid. Things got so bad, that her parents contemplated having her involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital.

The next evening, January 15, 2016, Ebonee told her parents she wasn’t coming over for a planned dinner. That night, when her boyfriend arrived at her home, Ebonee was gone. No one has seen Ebonee after that day. After six years of misinformation and muddled timelines, investigators and Ebonee’s loved ones are no closer to finding out where she went after she walked away.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Ebonee Spears, please contact the Wilmington Police Department at 910-343-3686.

Si tiene alguna información sobre la desaparición de Ebonee Spears, comuníquese con el Departamento de Policía de Wilmington al 910-343-3686.

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Every parent has done it. We’re out with our kids having a good time, and keeping an eye on them. We turn our heads for a second to order food or answer a question. We turn around, and our kids are still there, enjoying themselves. But deep down, we all have the same fear: we’ll look back and our child will be gone. On January 23, 1999, Theresa English lived every parent’s worst nightmare. That evening, she was with a dozen family members at a bowling alley, and her two-year-old daughter, Teekah Lewis was happily playing a car racing game. She was distracted for just an instant, and her entire world fell apart. 

It wouldn’t be until later that the family would discover that Teekah wasn’t the first child to be harmed at the New Frontier Lanes bowling alley in Topeka, Washington. There was a predator out there, and the Lewis family has been trying to find him and Teekah for over twenty years.

The Tacoma Police Department is asking anyone with information about Teekah Lewis’s disappearance to contact Crime Stoppers of Tacoma-Pierce County at 1-800-222-TIPS. You can also call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-842-5678). There is a $1,000 reward for information leading to arrest and charges in the case.

El Departamento de Policía de Tacoma está pidiendo a cualquier persona que tenga información sobre la desaparición de Teekah Lewis que se comunique con Crime Stoppers del condado de Tacoma-Pierce al 1-800-222-TIPS. También puede llamar al Centro Nacional para Niños Desaparecidos y Explotados al 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-842-5678). Hay una recompensa de $1,000 por información que conduzca al arresto y cargos en el caso.

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On a crisp winter day in 1910, a 25-year-old New York socialite left her family’s Upper East Side home to buy a new evening gown, and vanished without a trace. Over a century later, Dorothy Arnold’s disappearance remains one of New York’s greatest unsolved mysteries and its oldest missing persons case. Over the decades, there have been many theories about Dorothy’s fate; everything from secret elopements and amnesia to botched surgeries and buried bodies. But despite widespread publicity, Dorothy has never been found. Did something tragic happen to her on that cold December day, or did Dorothy Arnold simply choose a different path for herself?

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When someone goes missing, time doesn’t stop — but the world often moves on. For families, every day without answers becomes a kind of waiting room, where hope and grief exist side by side. We’ve covered hundreds of cases on this podcast, and we try to offer follow ups whenever we can, because the person’s story doesn’t end when our episode does. This week, we’re revisiting four cases that we’ve previously covered: Chance Englebert, Mary Johnson, Sage Smith, and Trudy Appleby, because in 2025, each of these cases saw significant developments. Some brought long-awaited answers, while others brought more painful questions. All of them remind us why it’s so important to keep these stories alive.

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On this day in 1988, 34-year-old Joan Yarbrough Bernal was supposed to be hitting the road with her husband and children for a holiday trip from Joliet, Illinois, to Texas. Instead, she vanished without a trace—and was never seen again.

Her husband, Gilbert “Gil” Bernal, has long claimed that Joan walked away from her life during the road trip. But Joan’s children and investigators believe the truth is much darker—and that Joan may never have made it out of Joliet.

In this episode, we trace Joan’s story: her life as a devoted mother of five, the troubling history of domestic abuse in her home, and the suspicious timeline of events surrounding her disappearance. We explore the initial 1993 murder charge against Gil that was later dropped, and how, decades later, the case has been revived with new forensic efforts and national attention thanks to Cold Justice.

Thirty-seven years on, Joan’s body has never been found, and no one has been held accountable. But her children—and cold case detectives—still haven’t stopped searching for the truth.

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On December 11, 1994, 4-year-old D’Wan Sims, went with his mother Dwanna Harris to do some Christmas shopping at the Wonderland Mall in Livonia, Michigan. According to Dwanna, they arrived around 1:45 PM and entered through the Target store at the mall. D’Wan followed his mother around the mall until one horrible moment when Dwanna realized her son was no longer by her side.

A massive search ensued, but there was no sign of the little boy. As the investigation intensified, Livonia police began to wonder, “was D’Wan ever at the mall in the first place?” Now, over thirty years later, investigators are still trying to figure out exactly what happened on that cold December day, and hoping to finally find D’Wan.

If you have information about the disappearance of D’Wan Sims, please contact the Livonia Police Department at 734-466-2470.

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In this special episode of 'And Then They Were Gone', Kona and Ethan return to a case they’ve been following for years, the disappearance and murder of Shane Donahue, to break down everything that unfolded inside the courtroom during the trial of Tim Hickerson.

Kona attended the trial in person, witnessing each day of testimony, every witness, and the prosecution’s strategy as they laid out their case against the man accused of taking Shane’s life. This episode walks listeners through how prosecutors presented their evidence, how witnesses held up under cross-examination, and what key moments left those sitting in the courtroom confounded.

Throughout the conversation, Kona and Ethan reflect on what they’ve learned since first covering Shane’s disappearance in 2020, and what this trial revealed about the events leading up to his death, the investigation that followed, and the long path toward justice.

This is a deep dive into one of Prince William County, Virginia's most controversial cases, and a look at what it’s like to sit inside a courtroom when a 15-year-old case is finally put in front of a jury. 

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On Thanksgiving Day 2010, three brothers—Andrew, Alexander, and Tanner Skelton—vanished from their father’s home in Morenci, Michigan. For nearly 15 years, their disappearance remained unsolved.

In 2025, just days before John Skelton was set to be released from prison, he was charged with their murders. This episode explores the heartbreaking timeline, the false leads, and the long-awaited charges in a case that gripped a community for over a decade.

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On November 24, 1971, a man using the name Dan Cooper boarded a flight from Portland to Seattle, handed a flight attendant a note claiming he had a bomb, and calmly hijacked the plane. After collecting a $200,000 ransom and four parachutes, he jumped from the Boeing 727 into the night sky—and was never seen again.

Known to the public as D.B. Cooper due to a media error, his identity remains a mystery. In this episode, we walk through the timeline of the hijacking, the FBI’s decades-long investigation, and the clues that continue to puzzle investigators and amateur sleuths alike.

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On October 30, 2025, Fruitland Police arrested Stacey Wondra in connection with the disappearance of Michael Joseph “Monkey” Vaughan, who vanished from his Idaho neighborhood on July 27, 2021.

In this episode, we break down the major developments in the case, including a detailed look at the probable cause affidavits for both Sarah and Stacey Wondra. We discuss what investigators now believe happened the day Michael disappeared, how the evidence has evolved, and what this new arrest could mean for Michael’s family and the ongoing search for answers.

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