And Then They Were Gone Podcast

And Then They Were Gone Podcast A true crime podcast about unsolved missing persons cases. Hosted by Kona Gallagher and Ethan Flick.

August 27, 1992: Leigh Occhi was left home alone for less than an hour. When her mother got back, the garage was open, b...
08/17/2026

August 27, 1992: Leigh Occhi was left home alone for less than an hour. When her mother got back, the garage was open, blood was still wet on the walls, and Leigh was gone.

In Leigh Occhi - Part 1, we covered the disappearance itself — the timeline, the family dynamic, and how suspicion fell almost immediately on Leigh's mother, Vickie Felton. This week, we go deep on the other name that's followed this case for over three decades: Oscar "Mike" Kearns, the Sunday school teacher at the Tupelo church Leigh and her mother attended.

Nine months after Leigh vanished, Kearns lured a 15-year-old girl from that same church into his car under the pretext of driving her to school — then held her at knifepoint, made her undress and lie on her own clothes, and s*xually assaulted her. He'd known her almost her entire life. She said he'd never once raised a red flag.

Noting the similarities between this case and Leigh's, investigators tried to ask him about Leigh over the years, but he refused every time.

We went through court records that never made it into any article about this case: a second assault while he was out on bond, a bail revocation motion, and a sentence that let him walk free in under four years.

We also get into what a K-9 unit and a forensic anthropology team were doing in the drainage ditch behind Leigh's old house on Honey Locust Drive in January 2025 — and why investigators reportedly still believe she never left the property at all.

Leigh turns 47 this week. She deserved every one of the days between 13 and 47.

🎧 Part 2 is up now. If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, start there first.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Leigh Occhi, please contact the Tupelo Police Department at (662) 841-6491, or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at 1-800-773-TIPS.

08/13/2026

Sorry. I was watching JP’s video and got all riled up. Walmart doesn’t deserve tontrample on your civil rights 😅

"Her favorite blanket was crumpled up on the floor and I was very scared."That's what Vickie Felton told CNN about the m...
08/01/2026

"Her favorite blanket was crumpled up on the floor and I was very scared."

That's what Vickie Felton told CNN about the moment she walked through her own home and realized her 13-year-old daughter was gone. It had been less than an hour. And in the 34 years since, no one has ever been arrested.

On the morning of August 27, 1992, the remnants of Hurricane Andrew were moving through Tupelo, Mississippi. 13-year-old Leigh Occhi was home alone. Her mother, Vickie, had already left for work, and around 8:30 she called home to check on her — using a code the two of them had so Leigh would know it was safe to answer.

No answer. She called again. Still nothing.

Vickie drove the mile and a half home. When she pulled into the driveway, the garage light was still on — the kind that shuts off automatically after five minutes. Whatever happened, it had happened only minutes before she arrived.

Inside, she found blood smeared on the wall.

What investigators found went far beyond that. Blood and hair were stuck to a door frame. Fresh, still-wet stains marked the walls, the carpet, and the bathroom counter. Leigh's bloodstained nightgown and bra were found stuffed in a laundry basket. Someone had tried to clean the bathroom — but no rag or towel was ever found in the house. Whoever cleaned up took the evidence with them.

There was no forced entry. Leigh's parents were certain: she wouldn't have opened the door for a stranger.

Eight days later, a McDonald's employee 30 miles north of Tupelo reported seeing a girl who looked like Leigh. It turned out to be someone else.

Five days after that, an envelope arrived at the house — addressed to Leigh's stepfather, misspelled, postmarked from that same town, carrying twice the necessary postage. No note. No ransom demand.

Inside were Leigh's missing glasses.

That envelope was the last real clue this case ever produced.

Fourteen months later, a farmer found a human skull in a ditch nearby. Dental records seemed to confirm the unthinkable — until the identification was retracted days later. It belonged to someone else entirely.

Leigh Occhi has now been missing for 34 years. She would be 46 years old today. There has never been an arrest — but there are names that have never been ruled out.

We just released Part 1 of Leigh's story on And Then They Were Gone. Listen today on your favorite podcast app.

If you have any information about what happened to Leigh, please contact the Tupelo Police Department at (662) 841-6491, or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at 1-800-773-TIPS.

She laughed it off at first. Her beeper had gone off mid-interview, and journalist Susan Walsh joked, "must be my stalke...
07/24/2026

She laughed it off at first. Her beeper had gone off mid-interview, and journalist Susan Walsh joked, "must be my stalker." Then she turned serious. "No, I do have a stalker."

Two days later, on July 16, 1996, the 36-year-old told her estranged husband she was stepping out to use a payphone near their Nutley, New Jersey apartment. She said she'd be back in half an hour.

She was never seen again.

Susan wasn't an easy person to sum up. She was a freelance journalist for The Village Voice and a former exotic dancer — a job she'd used to fund her writing before it became the subject of it. Her most explosive piece exposed young immigrant women being exploited in New York strip clubs with alleged ties to the Russian mob. She'd also spent months investigating an underground vampire subculture in New York City, and was helping research a book on the s*x industry. She told her father she believed there were contracts out on her life.

No one saw her at the payphone that day. No one saw her leave at all.

Investigators later discovered something strange: an entire page was missing from her calendar — the page covering the month she disappeared. No one has ever explained who removed it, or why.

Her friend claimed that she saw Susan get into a limousine about a month after she vanished. Police chased that lead, but it ultimately went nowhere.

Mob retaliation, a mental health crisis no one caught in time, or something else entirely. The theories haven't stopped since 1996 — but no one has ever gotten close to an answer.

We covered Susan's full story on the latest episode of the And Then They Were Gone podcast.

If you have any information about what happened to Susan Walsh, please contact the Nutley Police Department or the New Jersey State Police.

It was 3 a.m. on April 6, 1986, in Gallup, New Mexico, when someone knocked on the door of a small home off Route 66.Ins...
07/24/2026

It was 3 a.m. on April 6, 1986, in Gallup, New Mexico, when someone knocked on the door of a small home off Route 66.

Inside, 9-year-old Anthonette Cayedito and her little sister were still awake. Anthonette asked who was there. A voice answered: her Uncle Joe.

It wasn't her uncle.

By morning, Anthonette was gone. There was no sign of a struggle, and no evidence left behind. She'd simply vanished from her own home, wearing a pink nightgown.

A three-day search turned up nothing. The FBI got involved, but the case went cold.

Then, a year later, the Gallup Police Department got a phone call. A small voice said her name — twice. She said she was in Albuquerque.

Then an angry voice in the background shouted, "Who said you could use the phone?"

There was a scuffle, a scream, and then the line went dead.

Anthonette's mother listened to that 40-second recording over and over, certain it was her daughter's voice, but police were never able to trace the call.

Years later, investigators finally got Anthonette's younger sister to talk about that night. She was only five at the time, but she said she remembered it clearly: two men at the door, one calling himself "Uncle Joe." She said they grabbed Anthonette, who was kicking and screaming, and carried her away. She'd never told anyone before because she was afraid she'd get in trouble — her mom had been crying so much.

There was one more sighting, four years later. A waitress in Carson City, Nevada, served a girl who matched Anthonette's description who was there with an "unkempt" couple. The girl kept dropping her fork on purpose. Each time the waitress leaned down to pick it up, the girl squeezed her hand. After they left, the waitress found a note tucked under her plate that said, "Help me! Call police."

Nothing ever came of it.

Then, in 1994, someone made a confession to the FBI-- but for some reason, the FBI never acted on it.

That confession came nearly 30 years ago, and today, Anthonette Cayedito has been missing for 40 years. Her case remains open with the Gallup Police Department, the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety, and the FBI.

Someone out there knows what happened to her.

We covered Anthonette's full story on the latest episode of And Then They Were Gone. Listen on your favorite podcast app.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Anthonette Cayedito, please contact the FBI's Albuquerque Field Office at (505) 889-1300 or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.

07/23/2026

Not gonna lie. I was a little concerned going into it.

On the evening of January 2, 1999, 11-year-old Mikelle Biggs was outside her home in Mesa, Arizona with her younger sist...
06/20/2026

On the evening of January 2, 1999, 11-year-old Mikelle Biggs was outside her home in Mesa, Arizona with her younger sister Kimber, waiting for the ice cream truck. Their mom had given them each two quarters. The neighborhood kids were all out. It was a normal winter evening in a quiet suburb.

Kimber went inside because she was cold. She was gone for less than two minutes, but when she came back, Mikelle was gone.

Her purple bicycle was lying in the road, one wheel still spinning. The two quarters were scattered on the ground beside it.
Search dogs picked up Mikelle's scent almost immediately — and lost it within a few feet. The most likely explanation has always been the same: someone pulled up, grabbed her, and drove away. Investigators believe the entire abduction took place in a 90-second window.

What followed was one of the largest searches in Arizona history. Over a thousand people were interviewed. Tips poured in for years. A registered s*x offender who lived two blocks away was identified as a person of interest from the very beginning — but his wife gave him an alibi, and police moved on.

Then, nine months after Mikelle disappeared, that same man was arrested for the violent s*xual assault of another neighbor. From the ambulance on the way to the hospital, that victim told police she believed he had taken Mikelle.

After he went to prison, his ex-wife and former sister-in-law came forward and admitted they had lied. He wasn't home that evening. He had been gone from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. — the exact window in which Mikelle vanished.

He has never been charged in her case. He has never confessed. And Mikelle has never been found.

As of 2024, the Mesa Police Department has a new lead detective on the case. When asked if he believes it can be solved, he said yes.

We covered her full story on the latest episode of And Then They Were Gone — link in comments.

If you have any information about what happened to Mikelle, please contact the Mesa Police Department at (480) 644-2211 or NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678.

On the evening of October 12, 2018, 16-year-old Karlie Gusé told her dad and stepmother she was heading to a high school...
06/16/2026

On the evening of October 12, 2018, 16-year-old Karlie Gusé told her dad and stepmother she was heading to a high school football game in Chalfant Valley, California.

She didn't go to the game.

Instead, she went to a house party with her boyfriend. She smoked ma*****na that night — something she had done before, but this time, it didn't go well. She got scared of the music. She got scared of her boyfriend. She called her stepmother Melissa in a panic and begged her to come pick her up.

When Melissa arrived, Karlie was running down the street, pale as a ghost, with her pupils fully dilated. Melissa got her home and spent the night in her room trying to calm her down. Sometime after 5 a.m., Melissa fell asleep.

When she woke up around 7 a.m., Karlie was gone. She had left with no phone, no wallet, and no coat — in the freezing high desert cold.

Three witnesses spotted her that morning walking toward U.S. Highway 6, a desolate stretch of road heading north to the Nevada border. Search dogs tracked her scent all the way to the highway's edge.

Then the trail went cold.

The FBI got involved. The internet fractured into competing theories, but none of them led anywhere.

Then, in 2021, a tip came in: a witness claimed to have seen a girl matching Karlie's description at a party in Tonopah, Nevada — a small mining town more than 100 miles up Highway 6, across the state line. Investigators say they identified a vehicle that may have carried her there.

Karlie has never been found. She would be 24 years old today.

We covered her full story on the latest episode of And Then They Were Gone. Link in comments.

If you have information about Karlie's whereabouts, please contact the Mono County Sheriff's Office at [email protected].

06/03/2026

with And Then They Were Gone Pod Naresh Bhatt’s bond hearing is postponed.

On the night of March 7, 2021, 41-year-old Sarm Heslop had dinner with her boyfriend on the island of St. John in the US...
05/15/2026

On the night of March 7, 2021, 41-year-old Sarm Heslop had dinner with her boyfriend on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. It was a relaxed evening at a local bar, and afterwards, they took a short dinghy ride back to the 47-foot catamaran they lived on together, and went to bed. But by sunrise, Sarm was gone.

Her phone, wallet and passport were still on the boat, but she was not. And the man who was the last person to see her refused to talk. To this day, Ryan Bane maintains that Sarm must have gone overboard accidentally, but Sarm’s family believes there’s much more to the story, and five years later, they’re still trying to figure out what happened on that boat.

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