Vanished: the quick overview

For those of you who do not know the story: Miranda Gaddis was my first foster daughter. She arrived at my home not too long after her 10th birthday. She was with me for 18 months, then back home with her family for the next 18 months before going missing at 13 years old. She simply vanished on her way to school one day. She was the second girl to vanish from the same apartment complex. The first, Ashley Pond was a school-mate, member of the same dance team, and friend who seemed to drop off the face of the earth two months previously. A massive police and FBI investigation ensued.

The story was so big, in fact, that it was the lead story on every news station, every day, for nearly 6 months. It seemed there were posters and flyers everywhere. There were roadblocks looking for leads. Their faces were on billboards, magazine covers, and national talk shows. There were fundraisers, vigils, and near the end, nearly 24 hour a day news coverage live at the property where their bodies were finally found. The fence that the FBI erected around the crime scene became the sight of a massive memorial wall. There was no escaping the story unless one lived under the proverbial rock.


The general public knew about the family, and some knew that Miranda had been in foster care. No one knew about me or my family. I could not tell anyone that I was one of her moms, that she was totally a member of our family, or that our lives were shattered - seemingly beyond repair. The pain was nearly unbearable and was exacerbated by the isolation from any first-hand information. Our only information was weeding through the jumble of fact and fiction that flooded the media and the even more unreliable chatter on the internet.