On March 4, 2001, 11-year-old Bethany Markowski vanished during what was supposed to be a routine weekend visit with her father, Larry. He says she went into the Old Hickory Mall in Jackson, Tennessee, while he napped in the van. But there’s one big problem—security footage shows no sign she was ever there.

In this episode, we’ll dig into Bethany’s life before she disappeared, the volatile custody battle between her parents, and the messy, conflicting timeline that day. We’ll talk about phone pings that don’t match Larry’s story, witnesses who contradict his version of events, and the eerie gaps in time where no one—not even her own family—knows where Bethany was.

We’ll also explore the strange reported sightings over the years, including a chilling 2016 case where a girl in East Tennessee claimed she was Bethany…and knew details only Bethany could have known.

Twenty-plus years later, her mother, Jonnie, is still fighting to find her daughter, still pushing for answers, and still calling out the system that failed to protect Bethany in the first place.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Bethany Markowski, please contact the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND.

Sources:

https://bethanymarkowski.com/

https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2021/dear-bethany-20-years-missing

https://www.facebook.com/BethanyLeanneMarkowski/

https://www.wbbjtv.com/2025/01/27/still-missing-what-happened-to-bethany-markowski/

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