VANISHED E-Book

Claire Smith

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 109

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

One moment they were there. The next—they were gone. Across quiet neighborhoods, bustling cities, and rural backroads, children are vanishing—and behind every missing poster lies a story that demands to be heard. In this gripping and emotionally charged investigation, acclaimed journalist Claire Smith unravels the haunting truths behind some of the most chilling cases of child disappearance. From the first frantic 911 calls to the harrowing aftermath faced by families left in limbo, Vanished: When Innocence is Taken exposes not only the predators behind the crimes—but also the cracks in the systems meant to protect the vulnerable. Through real-life case studies, psychological profiling, survivor testimonies, and in-depth analysis, Smith sheds light on a hidden epidemic—and the collective silence that allows it to persist. This is more than a true crime narrative. It is a call to awareness. A voice for the voiceless. And a plea to never forget the children who never came home. Because behind every statistic is a name. A face. A future stolen.

Leseprobe

CLAIRE SMITH

VANISHED

When The Innocent trade their soul, kids are vulnerable.

First published by Ginnie Writes Publication 2025

Copyright © 2025 by CLAIRE SMITH

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

CLAIRE SMITH asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

the author can be reached via email: [email protected]

First edition

Editing by Ginnie Writes Publications Typesetting by Reesdy.com

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy Find out more at reedsy.com

To the children who vanished before their time—

whose laughter was stolen, whose dreams were cut short,

and whose stories demand to be told.

To the families who continue searching,

who refuse to be silenced,

and who turn their grief into a relentless fight for justice.

This book is for you.

May your voices never fade,

and may the world never stop listening.

“For the lost, but never forgotten.

For the silenced, but never unheard.

Their stories remain. Their voices endure.

May justice find them, wherever they are.”

Contents

Prologue

The Last Goodbye

Chapter 1

Vanishing Without a Trace

Chapter 2

A Pattern of Silence

Chapter 3

The Predator’s Mind

Chapter 4

The Case That Changed Everything

Chapter 5

The Failures of the System

Chapter 6

The Vanishing Underground

Chapter 7

The Families Left Behind

Chapter 8

Breaking the Cycle

Chapter 9

Voices That Must Be Heard

Epilogue

About the Author

Prologue

chapter-seperator

The Last Goodbye

The streetlights flickered as dusk settled over the quiet neighborhood. It was one of those early autumn evenings where the air held a crisp bite, the scent of burning leaves drifting through the air. On October 14th, 1998, seven-year-old Lily Carter walked home from her best friend’s house, a route she had taken dozens of times before. She was supposed to be home by 6:30 p.m. She never made it.

Her mother, Rachel Carter, stood by the kitchen window, drying dishes, occasionally glancing at the clock. 6:35 p.m. Late, but not alarmingly so. Maybe she had lost track of time. Maybe she had stopped to play in the last remnants of daylight.

By 6:45 p.m., Rachel called her friend’s house.

“She left fifteen minutes ago,” the friend’s mother said. “She should be there by now.”

A cold wave of panic crept up Rachel’s spine. The distance was barely three blocks. She grabbed her keys, slipped on a sweater, and stepped out onto the porch, calling Lily’s name into the growing darkness. Nothing. The street was empty.

By 7:00 p.m., Rachel was running down the sidewalk, her pulse hammering. She reached the intersection where Lily should have turned. A single streetlamp buzzed overhead. The road was silent, lined with neat houses and freshly raked lawns.

No Lily.

Neighbors joined the search, their voices echoing into the night. By 7:30 p.m., police were called. Flashlights cut through the darkness as officers combed the area. A search dog picked up Lily’s scent but lost it abruptly near the corner of Maplewood and Pine, as if she had simply vanished into thin air.

No footprints. No signs of a struggle. Just… gone.

The Vanishing

The next morning, Lily’s disappearance made the front page of the local newspaper. Her school photo—a gap-toothed smile, bright blue eyes—was plastered across every news station.

“Seven-Year-Old Girl Missing—Last Seen Walking Home.”

The town of Maplewood, a quiet suburb where people left their doors unlocked, was thrown into chaos. Parents clutched their children’s hands tighter. Strangers became suspects.

Detectives interviewed everyone—neighbors, classmates, teachers, the friend she had been visiting. No one had seen anything unusual. No strange cars. No suspicious figures lurking in the shadows.

But then, there was Mr. Willis.

An elderly man who lived two houses down from the corner where Lily’s scent had disappeared, Mr. Willis told police he had seen a blue pickup truck idling at the intersection around the time Lily would have been walking home. He hadn’t thought much of it—until now.

A blue pickup. No plates. No driver description. Just a fragment of a clue.

Days passed. Then weeks. Leads turned to dead ends. Search parties dwindled.

Rachel Carter, once a vibrant woman, grew hollow-eyed and ghostlike, standing at the window for hours, watching the street as if expecting Lily to walk back home at any moment.

The Shoe in the Woods

It wasn’t until six months later that anything of Lily was found.

A hiker in Greystone National Forest, twenty miles from Maplewood, stumbled upon a small pink sneaker, half-buried in the dirt near a secluded trail. Investigators confirmed it was Lily’s.

The area was searched thoroughly. Bloodhounds sniffed the ground, helicopters scanned the terrain. But there was nothing else.

No body. No clothing. No sign of Lily.

Just a shoe.

It was as if she had been swallowed by the earth itself.

A Case That Wouldn’t Let Go

Years passed, but the case never truly faded. Every so often, a possible sighting reignited hope, only to be dashed by false leads. Psychics called in with vague visions. Tip lines rang with dead-end information.

Rachel Carter refused to move away, convinced Lily was still out there. She kept her daughter’s room exactly as it had been, the pink bedspread untouched, her favorite teddy bear propped against the pillows.

But there were bigger questions—the ones that haunted the investigators who had worked the case.

Was Lily taken by someone she knew?

Was she the victim of a random predator?

Did she fall into the hands of something darker—something organized?

Because here was the chilling truth: Lily was not the only one.

A Pattern in the Dark

As years went by, other disappearances surfaced. Girls, between the ages of six and ten, vanishing under eerily similar circumstances. Different towns. Different states. But the same unsettling details.

No witnesses. No struggle. No remains.

The cases seemed isolated at first—until investigators started connecting the dots.

A nine-year-old in Ohio, gone while walking home from school.

A six-year-old in Texas, last seen playing in her front yard.

An eight-year-old in Florida, who stepped into a gas station to buy candy and never walked out.

And then came the whispers. The ones that suggested these weren’t one-off abductions, but something larger. Something systematic.

The term “The Vanishing Underground” began surfacing in law enforcement circles, hinting at an organized network, a hidden world where children were taken—and never seen again.

Lily’s case, once thought to be a singular tragedy, became something more—a terrifying piece of a puzzle no one wanted to believe existed.

The Final Call

Twenty-five years later, Rachel Carter still waits.

Her phone rings every so often—detectives following up on a lead, reporters asking for a comment on another missing child case that bears an eerie resemblance to Lily’s.

She still keeps the same number, just in case.

Because every time the phone rings, a part of her still hopes it’s her daughter’s voice on the other end.

But deep down, she fears the truth.

That Lily Carter became one of the vanished—and that the real question is not where she is, but who took her, and why.

And if the answer is far darker than anyone ever imagined.

Chapter 1

chapter-seperator

Vanishing Without a Trace

The Last Time Anyone Saw Her

The town of Brookdale, Missouri, was the kind of place where people prided themselves on knowing their neighbors. It was small and quiet, the kind of town where children rode their bikes until sunset, and missing posters were almost unheard of. That changed on the evening of June 17, 2003, when nine-year-old Emily Turner vanished without a trace.

That Tuesday had been an ordinary summer day. Emily, an energetic girl with dark curls and dimples, spent the afternoon playing in the backyard with her little brother, five-year-old Noah. They had built a fort out of old blankets and garden chairs, their laughter echoing through the yard as they pretended to be explorers in a jungle. The sun cast a warm glow over Brookdale, and the air was filled with the sweet scent of blooming flowers.

Around 5:30 p.m., Emily asked her mother, Linda Turner, if she could ride her bike down the street to her best friend’s house. It was a short ride—less than four blocks away. Linda hesitated for a moment but ultimately agreed, reminding her daughter to be home by 6:15 p.m. for dinner.

Emily smiled, hopped onto her pink bicycle, and pedaled down the street, her pigtails bouncing with each turn of the wheels. Her mother watched her go, a sense of normalcy enveloping them both. Little did they know, that would be the last time Linda ever saw her daughter.

By 6:30 p.m., Emily still hadn’t returned. Linda stood on the front porch, wiping her hands on a dish towel, scanning the street. Maybe Emily had lost track of time. Maybe she had stayed a little longer at her friend’s house. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the lawn.

At 6:45 p.m., anxiety began to creep into Linda’s mind. She called the friend’s mother, Karen Miller.

“She left about half an hour ago,” Karen said. “She should’ve been home by now.”

Panic tightened in Linda’s chest. She ran outside, calling Emily’s name, her voice echoing into the growing dusk. Her husband, Greg Turner, jumped into his truck and started driving up and down the street, searching every corner of their familiar neighborhood. Neighbors joined the search, knocking on doors, checking backyards, even looking in sheds and garages.

By 7:30 p.m., Greg made the fateful decision to call the Brookdale Police Department. A child being 15 minutes late wasn’t necessarily cause for alarm. But an hour late? Alone? On a quiet street where no one had seen anything? That was different.

By 8:00 p.m., two officers arrived at the Turner house. They asked the usual questions:

What was she wearing?Did she take anything with her?Was there any reason she might have run away?

Linda answered through sobs. No, she would never run away. No, she didn’t take anything—just her bike. She was wearing denim shorts, a white T-shirt with a butterfly on it, and her favorite blue sneakers.

By 9:00 p.m., more officers were called in. Flashlights illuminated the darkened streets as neighbors and police scoured every inch of the neighborhood. The once peaceful town was now filled with urgency and fear.

Then, around 9:45 p.m., they found something.

Emily’s pink bicycle was discovered abandoned near an empty lot, about two blocks from her house. The front wheel was twisted slightly, as if it had been knocked over. The chain had come loose, hanging limply from the gears. But Emily was nowhere to be found.

By midnight, Brookdale police officially classified Emily as a missing child. While some children wandered off, it was clear Emily hadn’t. Something had happened to her.

Detectives took over the case. Lieutenant David Reynolds, a veteran investigator with 15 years on the force, led the team. His gut told him this wasn’t just a lost child—this was an abduction.

The first 24 to 48 hours in a missing child case are the most critical. The longer a child is missing, the lower the chances of finding them alive. Immediate steps were taken:

A grid search was launched, covering a 10-mile radius.K-9 units were brought in to track Emily’s scent.House-to-house interviews were conducted.Traffic camera footage from nearby intersections was reviewed.

By sunrise, the case had already drawn media attention.

By the morning of June 18, Emily’s face was everywhere. Her school picture, showing her wide smile and bright eyes, appeared on local news channels, newspapers, and online bulletins. Flyers were printed and handed out across Brookdale.

“Nine-Year-Old Girl Missing—Last Seen Riding Her Bike Home.”

Reporters gathered outside the Turner home, their cameras rolling as a tearful Linda and Greg pleaded for their daughter’s safe return.

“If you have Emily, please… please let her go,” Linda sobbed into the microphone. “She’s just a little girl. She has a family who loves her. Please bring her home.”

As the media storm intensified, Brookdale, once a safe town where children played freely, now felt different. Parents kept their kids indoors. Strangers were met with suspicion. Doors were locked earlier.