09/19/2025
Black Family Vanished on Road Trip in 1982 — 20 Years Later This Is Found in the Forest…
On the morning of June 17, 1982, the Stokes family—Reverend Elijah, his wife Clarice, and their three children—left their home before sunrise for a summer road trip. Their beige 1978 Chevrolet Suburban was packed with camping gear, a kayak, and enough food for a week.
Their destination: the Smoky Mountains, with plans to possibly reach Asheville, North Carolina. They were last seen at a gas station near Cedar Grove, Alabama, where the clerk remembered Maya, the eldest daughter, giving him a hand-drawn bird. After that, the Stokes family vanished without a trace.
For two decades, their disappearance haunted Jackson. No bank activity. No calls. No evidence of foul play. The Suburban was never found. The case faded into cold-case files, a whispered local legend, until the fall of 2002, when a chance discovery in a Tennessee forest changed everything.
𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 👇
