Lost Girls3 Nov 2025

The Disappearances of Madelin Tomlin, Mercedes Toliver, and Destinee Bruce

In this haunting episode of The Lost Girls, hosts Amy Smith and LaDonna Humphrey take listeners deep into the heart of small-town Arkansas, where safety is supposed to be a way of life — yet three young women have vanished without a trace.

Madelin Tomlin (Hope, AR – 2015), Mercedes Toliver (Prescott, AR – 2016), and Destinee Bruce (Hope, AR – 2025) are names that echo through the quiet streets of two close-knit towns now united by tragedy and unanswered questions.

LaDonna and Amy explore the unnerving parallels between these cases — three women, all young and loved, missing within an 18-mile radius. Each disappearance is different, but all share one chilling commonality: silence.

In places where “things like that don’t happen,” these women’s disappearances demand attention — and action. Their stories remind us that justice delayed is not justice denied, and that every girl deserves justice.

Sources & Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to the following for information used in this episode:
- The Charley Project – case summaries and historical records
- NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) – official case entries and identifiers
- News Archives
If you are a family member with updates or corrections, please contact us so we can keep these stories accurate and current.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(131)

Two Generations Missing

In August 2015, 48-year-old Sheila St. Clair disappeared from Duluth, Minnesota. Nearly eleven years later, her family is once again facing the uncertainty of a missing loved one after Sheila’s daught...

11 Aug 17min

Jessie Kay Peters: When a Runaway Case Became a Murder Investigation

At first, everyone believed fourteen-year-old Jessie Kay Peters had simply run away.But as the years passed, the evidence told a different story.In this episode of The Lost Girls Podcast, hosts Amy Sm...

5 Aug 9min

Asha Degree: The Nine-Year-Old Who Vanished into the Storm

On the morning of February 14, 2000, nine-year-old Asha Degree disappeared from her family’s home near Shelby, North Carolina. Despite cold temperatures, heavy rain, darkness, and strong winds, severa...

26 Jul 13min

The Disappearance of Freida Louise Franks

In August 2001, 37-year-old Freida Louise Franks left Neosho, Missouri, for what was supposed to be a family camping trip with her 11-year-old daughter and Mark Terrell Walsh. She never returned.As in...

13 Jul 9min

The Disappearance of Trudy Leann Appleby

The Lost Girls Podcast | The Disappearance of Trudy Leann Appleby | The 1996 Illinois Cold Case That May Finally See JusticeIn this episode of The Lost Girls Podcast, hosts LaDonna Humphrey and Amy Sm...

6 Jul 8min

The Vanishing of Audrey Chin

In July 1981, 20-year-old Audrey Chin left her family's home in East Norwich, New York, for what should have been a quick trip to the grocery store. She never returned. More than four decades later, h...

29 Jun 8min

Angel Carlick: A Life Interrupted

In this episode of The Lost Girls Podcast, hosts LaDonna Humphrey and Amy Smith examine the heartbreaking case of Angel Carlick, a 19-year-old Indigenous woman whose disappearance and death continue t...

8 Jun 12min

Melissa Brannen: The Little Girl Who Never Came Home

On December 3, 1989, five-year-old Melissa Brannen attended a Christmas party with her mother at their apartment complex in northern Virginia. Surrounded by neighbors, holiday decorations, and familie...

4 Jun 17min