It's been twenty-four years since Jason Jolkowski disappeared on June 13, 2001 while walking a short distance from his home to meet a co-worker a few blocks away. Throughout that time, theories continue to pile up but nothing seems to change the stagnancy of the case. Despite the unanswered questions and the years that have slipped by, Jason’s case is far from forgotten, and his family continues searching for the closure they so desperately need.

It was a beautiful and sunny Saturday morning in Waukesha, Wisconsin on May 31, 2014 when a cyclist came upon Payton Leutner laying near a bike path in a park. The 12-year-old girl had been stabbed multiple times and left for dead, but after extensive life-saving measures, would miraculously survive the vicious attack. Authorities were forced to confront their fundamental assumptions when she told them that her own friends, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser, had been the ones to carry out the heinous act. Both girls believed that the fictional character Slender Man would harm their families, but killing Payton would dissuade him in their favor.

Reshaping motive into a dilemma of insanity and delusion, they were found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a mental health institution. But the story was far from over, creating a bigger conversation about mental health in the legal system and the true definition of justice. How far does guilt go, how do we heal as a community and is closure a tangible thing or just a feeling?

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All music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution.

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*A special thanks to ABC's 20/20 "Out of the Woods", The Independent, Slenderman by Kathleen Hale, HBO's Beware the Slenderman & CBS News for information that allowed this episode to be possible. 

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It was a perfect day for a hike on September 25th, 1981 when Thelma Pauline Melton ventured out into the woods of the Great Smoky Mountain with two friends. Walking ahead of them at one point, Thelma sped up around a hilly bend, slipping out of sight. A few minutes later, they reached the same spot, expecting to see her, but Thelma wasn't there. Despite extensive search and rescue efforts, no trace of Thelma was found. She had simply vanished. For decades, family and friends lived with unanswered questions, haunted by the mystery of how someone could just disappear so completely, without a trace.

It was 7:32 PM on August 10th, 2018 when security warnings notified all employees at the Seattle-Tacoma airport to immediately halt activity until further instruction. At first, nobody knew that a Bombardier Q400 plane had just executed an unauthorized take off from the runway but soon, locals would notice the 76-passenger aircraft flying unusually low to the ground. Behind the yoke was 28-year-old Richard Russell, a Horizon Air service agent. After repeated attempts, air traffic control was able to reach him, and what followed would be a conversation that so many would never forget.

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In 2018, 23-year-old April Carpenter of Wabaseemoong Nation went missing after failing to arrive at her sister's home as planned. Despite the sense of urgency her family felt, authorities did not suspect foul play. The public was not alerted of her disappearance until three weeks later, when it was officially treated as a missing persons case. Soon after, her body was discovered in the Red River in Winnipeg. Seven years later, her loved ones and community still await answers, convinced that the truth about what happened to April remains untold.

It's been over four years since 26-year-old Kirsten Brueggeman was last seen on surveillance video, walking in an Eastside area of Indianapolis, Indiana. After a night with friends ended in arguments, Kirstin was alone with no indication as to where she was heading. When she didn't show up for work the next day, her parents reported her missing to the police. There has been no sign of her since, with many believing that the answer to her disappearance could be found in a video glitch containing more than an hour of lost time. 

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It was just after midnight on May 19th, 1991 when Wendy McKee stood beside the Central Expressway in Dallas, Texas to hitch a ride. When Bill Robert Cathey pulled up, he seemed harmless enough, and willing to take her anywhere she wanted. No stranger to a troubled past, when Bill revealed that he was a police officer, Wendy was hoping that she would be in and out of the county jail by the next day. All this supposed cop had on her was the assumption that she had bought drugs inside the apartment building where he had taken her. Sitting in the passenger seat, Wendy was unaware that her entire life was about to change in a way she could have never seen coming. Because this isn't an arrest. It's a capture.

Mary Kreiser has been missing since October 1987, when she failed to show up to her daughter's house for Thanksgiving dinner. After being reported to the RCMP, further investigation would discover that the 49-year-old mother of five was last seen at a Petro Canada gas station over an hour away from her home the previous month. A proud member of Bigstone Cree Nation, it was completely unlike her to be out of touch and even though the RCMP has never officially named a suspect in the case, her family has a strong feeling that they know exactly who was involved in Mary's disappearance.

When 19-year-old Phyllis Jepleting of Nakuru, Kenya failed to get in touch with family during Christmas break while away at university, they immediately knew something was wrong. As authorities worked out a timeline for her last known whereabouts, suspicion would fall upon her boyfriend, Ezra, who had been the last person to see Phyllis alive. 

48-year-old Trina Hunt would seemingly vanish from her Port Moody home on January 18th, 2021. When her husband Iian returned home from work that day, he reported the suspicious disappearance. For weeks, police rescue crews and hundreds of volunteers would search the area for the missing woman, with no sight or sign of her. Finally, the investigation would switch to a homicide case when her body was discovered in Hope, two months later. Trina's murderer still has not been brought to justice, but the details of her last known whereabouts and the strange story that Iian Hunt told authorities would have the court of public opinion already sure of who was guilty.