Marilyn "Niqui" McCown - Part 1: The Last Sunday

On Sunday, July 22, 2001, 28-year-old Marilyn “Niqui” McCown attended church with her nine-year-old daughter, Payton, and her fiancé, Bobby. Niqui had a lot to look forward to. She was preparing to get married in less than a month, continuing her education, and building a career in criminal justice. That afternoon, she headed out to do laundry, something she'd done countless Sundays before.But during a stop at her parents' house, Niqui seemed troubled. Her mother later recalled that Niqui had been pacing and said someone at the laundromat was bothering her. Despite the uncomfortable encounter, Niqui left to retrieve her laundry, expecting to return shortly, but Niqui never came back.As the hours passed, Niqui's fiancé began calling friends and relatives, and her family searched the roads between Richmond, Indiana, and Dayton, Ohio, hoping to find some sign of her. Payton remembers the growing panic that evening, watching family members come and go, and waking up the next morning to discover that her mother was still missing.Twenty-five years later, Niqui's family is still trying to understand what happened during those final hours. If you have any information about the disappearance of Niqui McCown, please contact the Richmond Police Department at 765-983-7247.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode first aired on June 29, 2020. On September 26, 2018, 57-year-old Kimberly Flint disappeared from rural Rusk County, Texas. That afternoon, authorities responded to a single-vehicle accident on Highway 84 near the Angelina River. They found Kim's Jeep crashed along the bridge, but there was no sign of the driver. When police contacted the registered owner, Kim's husband, James Roy Flint, he was surprised to learn that the Jeep had been involved in an accident. Kim rarely left home, and he couldn't imagine why she would have been driving in that area. James rushed home to check on his wife, but she was nowhere to be found.Just over an hour before the accident was reported, Kim had spoken with her husband on the phone and asked him to bring home food. Her purse and phone were still at home, and there was no indication that she had planned to go anywhere. Her family struggled to understand what could have happened in such a short window of time or why she would have left the scene of the crash.Despite extensive searches involving multiple law enforcement agencies, tracking dogs, drones, and other resources, investigators found no trace of Kim. Her family was left wondering whether she had been injured in the accident and wandered into the surrounding woods or if someone else had been involved in her disappearance. As the years passed without answers, the mystery of what happened to Kim only deepened.More than three years after Kim vanished, a discovery was made just a mile from where her Jeep had crashed. Stay tuned to the end of this episode for an update on Kim's case.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In February 2022, 21-year-old Rylee James Styler traveled to Leavenworth, Kansas, to spend the weekend with friends. Rylee moved around often, splitting his time between Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, so when his mom, Teri, didn’t hear from him for a few days, it wasn’t immediately alarming. Rylee always resurfaced, but this time, he didn’t.Shortly before communication stopped, Rylee sent his best friend a scene from the movie Juice, followed by a cryptic message suggesting something was wrong. He also missed a call from Rylee that night and planned to call him back the next day, but never got the chance.Then, police contacted Teri and said they were trying to locate Rylee because of a car that had turned up in the county. They assured her that Rylee wasn’t in trouble and that they just needed to speak with him. But when Teri tried to contact Rylee to let him know the police were looking for him, her message never went through.Rylee’s family tried to understand what was happening while investigators revealed very little. What eventually emerged was far more complicated than that initial phone call suggested: a burned vehicle, a suspected murder scene, conflicting accounts of what happened inside a Leavenworth house, and a sprawling racketeering investigation involving the last known people to see Rylee.Years of arrests, trials, plea agreements, and prison sentences followed. Yet the legal process would prove that resolving one part of a case doesn’t necessarily answer the question a family has been asking from the beginning: What happened to Rylee James Styler, and why has that answer remained so difficult to find?If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On the evening of August 30, 2001, 44-year-old Edgar Sanchez drove to the Baldwin, New York, home of his older brother, 53-year-old Frank Sanchez. Edgar left his car there, and the brothers headed out together in Frank’s white Chevrolet Lumina. They were believed to be meeting someone they had known for years.The brothers were close, and cars had always been a major part of both of their lives. Frank was a mechanic and accomplished racer, while Edgar had also built a career around cars. There was nothing unusual about them spending time together, but Frank seemed different that night. He was unusually quiet, and when he left the house, he did something his family immediately noticed: he didn’t kiss his wife goodbye. Frank and Edgar never came home.By the following day, Frank’s Lumina was parked on Grand Street in Chinatown, more than an hour away from where the brothers were believed to have been headed, and in the opposite direction. The car began accumulating parking tickets, but it would take time before anyone connected it to the missing brothers from Long Island.Then, just twelve days after Frank and Edgar disappeared, September 11 changed everything. As law enforcement resources across the region were redirected, the Sanchez family was already searching for answers of their own. Over time, they learned more about what may have been troubling Frank that night, a large amount of money the brothers may have been trying to retrieve, and parts of Frank and Edgar’s past that raised an entirely different set of questions.Twenty-five years later, Frank and Edgar Sanchez have never been found. Their family is still trying to understand where they went that night, how Frank’s car ended up in Chinatown, and what happened after the brothers drove away from Frank’s home.If you have any information about the disappearance of Frank and Edgar Sanchez, please contact the Nassau County Police Department Missing Persons Squad at 516-573-7347.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode first aired on August 8, 2022. On March 26, 2020, 45-year-old Eugene Prins planned a short road trip with a friend to drop off a wood splitter. They started out in Woonsocket, South Dakota, and drove about 25 miles east to the tiny town of Fedora. Afterward, Eugene and his friend stopped at a bar in Forestburg, along their route home. The two were captured on surveillance footage leaving the bar at 7:38 PM. Eugene had been drinking, but witnesses said he didn’t appear to be visibly intoxicated. He had also mentioned that he wanted to get home because he had work the following morning.According to Eugene’s friend, they made one final detour to a mutual friend’s farm. Eugene stayed in the truck while his friend went inside. When he returned approximately 20 minutes later, Eugene was gone.Despite extensive searches of the surrounding farmland, Eugene remained missing for more than two years. His family struggled to understand why he would have walked away on a cold March night, leaving behind his job, his loved ones, and his beloved dog, Shadow. As the years passed without answers, they began to question whether there was more to his disappearance.Just weeks after we shared Eugene's story, a farmer made a discovery that would finally bring his family some answers. Stay tuned to the end of this episode for an update on Eugene’s case.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramTwitterPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In April 2010, 24-year-old Tanner Sharp left his sister’s home in California and told his family he was heading to Kansas, where a friend had a job waiting for him. Over the next few weeks, Tanner remained in contact, but his calls were brief, and he shared very little about his new life. During his final calls to family, he said he was getting a new phone and would reach out once he had the new number. But they never heard from Tanner again.As Tanner’s family began looking for him, they discovered that some of what they believed about those final weeks wasn’t true. What followed was a trail of strange details, unanswered questions, and evidence that seemed to point in more than one direction.More than 16 years later, Tanner’s family is still searching. Was he trying to leave his old life behind, was he struggling with something his family couldn’t see, or did someone else become part of the story?If you have any information about the disappearance of Tanner Sharp, please contact the Galt Police Department at 209-366-7000.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last week, in Part 1 of Wade Hack’s story, we followed Wade’s final months in Baltimore and the account of what happened in the days before he disappeared. But as his family and friends began trying to verify that story, they kept running into the same problem: so much of it depended on information they could not independently confirm.In Part 2, we’ll learn what Wade’s loved ones uncovered when they began working from the opposite direction, setting aside the pieces they could not independently verify and focusing instead on the information they could confirm. As they retraced his time in Baltimore, they uncovered inconsistencies surrounding Wade's belongings, new questions about his relationship with Tony, and messages that suggest Wade may have made other plans to get back to North Carolina.What they found did not solve the mystery of Wade’s disappearance, but it did suggest that his final days in Baltimore may have looked very different from the story his loved ones were first given.If you have any information about the disappearance of Wade Hack, please contact the Baltimore County Police Department at (410) 887-2214.Wade’s loved ones have also created an email address for anyone who may have information related to his disappearance: [email protected] you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In June of 2024, 31-year-old Wade Hack traveled from North Carolina to Baltimore, Maryland, to spend time with a man he had met online. What was supposed to be about a week-long visit stretched into several months. By late October, Wade was making plans to return home. But just days before his family was expecting him back in North Carolina, Wade disappeared.The initial account of Wade’s disappearance centered on a note he was said to have left behind, suggesting he intended to be gone only briefly. But as his family and friends began retracing his final days, even the most basic details became difficult to pin down. Accounts of when and where Wade was last seen shifted, key stretches of time remained unexplained, and his loved ones were left trying to reconstruct his movements in a city where he had spent only a few months and had very few connections of his own.In Part One of Wade’s story, we will examine how he ended up in Baltimore, his final days before he disappeared, and why the timeline his loved ones were initially given became increasingly difficult to verify.If you have any information about the disappearance of Wade Hack, please contact the Baltimore County Police Department at (410) 887-2214.Wade’s loved ones have also created an email address for anyone who may have information related to his disappearance: [email protected] you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode originally aired on December 5, 2022. Since then, there have been significant developments in Aidan Spear’s case. Stay tuned to the end of the episode for an update.On January 24, 2022, 21-year-old Aidan Spear had plans to meet with her mother, Jessica, at 11 AM. About 20 minutes before they were due to meet, Jessica received a message from Aidan stating that she had to say goodbye to someone and would be a little late. She promised to call later and said she would still meet her, just not at the original time. Jessica never heard from her daughter again.At first, Jessica assumed that Aidan had just flaked on her, but the days continued to pass with no sign of Aidan. Then, Jessica began hearing from Aidan’s friends that they hadn’t heard from her either. Nearly a year later, Aidan was still missing, and Jessica was desperate to uncover the truth.More than four years after Aidan disappeared, her remains were identified after being found in a wooded area on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The circumstances surrounding her death remain under investigation.If you have any information regarding Aidan Spear’s disappearance or death, please contact the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office at (253) 798-7530.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

May 26, 2026, started like any ordinary day for 53-year-old John Kapaun. He got up that morning, packed a lunch for his daughter, Alyssa, spent some time playing guitar, and later played a game with his son, Jacob. Around 2:00 p.m., John left the Burnsville, Minnesota, home he shared with his children for his daily walk.John was known to walk long distances and usually followed the same route to Terrace Oaks Park, where he often walked several laps and foraged. His routine was predictable, and he was usually home before 5:00 p.m., around the time Alyssa returned from work. John often had dinner waiting for his children.When Alyssa arrived home that afternoon and John wasn’t there, it seemed unusual, but not immediately alarming. She assumed he was running a few minutes late. As more time passed, she tried calling him, only to hear his phone ringing from inside the house. That’s when she realized John had left without it.Alyssa began searching the places her father normally walked, but there was no sign of him. John has Type 1 diabetes and followed a regular insulin schedule, so when he failed to return in time for his evening dose, the situation became increasingly urgent. That night, law enforcement began searching the areas John was known to frequent, but they found no trace of him.Later, a witness came forward, stating they had seen John shortly after he left home. The person recognized him from seeing him on his walks many times before. But according to the witness, John was walking in the opposite direction from the route he normally took to Terrace Oaks Park.If that sighting was accurate, John may never have been heading to Terrace Oaks that afternoon. Was he intentionally taking a different route? Was he heading somewhere else entirely? Did he suffer a medical emergency, accept a ride from someone, or make a decision his family never saw coming?Nearly three months later, John remains missing. His family continues searching, revisiting possible sightings and trying to understand what happened after he walked away from home that afternoon. Somewhere between his front door and wherever he was going, John’s trail goes cold.If you have any information about the disappearance of John Kapaun, please contact the Burnsville Police Department at 952-641-1126.John’s family has also created a website dedicated to bringing him home. There, you can find additional information about the search efforts, along with a detailed map tracking areas that have been searched and where possible sightings have been reported. You can also follow the family’s ongoing search efforts through the John Kapaun Search Party Facebook group, where they share updates and information related to the search.If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.Follow The Vanished on social media at:FacebookInstagramPatreonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.