True Crime with Kendall Rae - What Happened to Missing 5-Year-Old LeeAnna Warner?

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

In June 2003, five-year-old LeeAnna Warner suddenly went missing after going off to play with a friend. Even after the entire town got involved with the search effort, there was no break in the case; no one could find the little girl. A neighbor who lived down the street was separately charged after police found CP on his computer, but he took his own life before he could be truly questioned. To this day, LeeAnna's whereabouts are a mystery, but her family still holds on to hope. Donate to NCMEC through my campaign! https://give.missingkids.org/campaign...  Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop This episode is sponsored by: NURX Quince Smalls - For 50% off your first order, head to Smalls.com/KENDALLRAE and use code KENDALLRAE. Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much for joining me today and if you're new, then welcome. I'm so happy to have you here. So today guys, I won't lie, this is a tough case to discuss. Anytime we talk about a case that involves children, it's really, really hard, but it is also very important. And specifically, we're going to be talking about the case of missing five-year-old Leanna Warner, who disappeared back in 2003 and to this day is still considered to be missing. However,

I wanted to talk about it because their family has remained so hopeful that one day they could even possibly find Leanna or that at the very least they could get the answers that they so desperately need. Obviously as time goes on with any case, media coverage just kind of dwindles and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring this case back into the spotlight a little bit. But before I get into the details of Liana's disappearance, I wanted to quickly take a moment to talk about the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You guys know that I've been working with them for a while raising funds and raising awareness

about what they do. And one of the amazing things that they do specifically to help resolve cases of long term missing children are their amazing age progressions, which have helped in so many cases. I know that I've shared so many of their age progressions over the years in my coverage and you're gonna be seeing one of Leanna today. NECMEC has a team of forensic artists who age progressed the missing children's faces to show what they might look like today and increase the likelihood of someone recognizing them as they could look today. When I got the opportunity to visit the NECMEC headquarters I actually got a demonstration on how they do this. And it's a really interesting process that is really a labor of love.

I mean, everyone that works at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is just so passionate about what they do. And with that being said, I wanted to shout out our neck met campaign and the merch items that we still have available. If you're interested, specifically one of my favorites is the blue topaz long sleeve with neck mix. Every child deserves a safe childhood logo. And then on the back, it has neck mix main logo.

It's really comfortable. It has a relaxed fit and we've never done a neck shirt in this color. You can find all our neck items at Kendall Ray dot shop and as always, 100% of the profit is donated directly to the National Center for Missing Exploited Children. And thank you to everyone who has supported this campaign so far. We are nearing $450,000 raised and I am super, super proud of that. Super proud of all of you who have helped us get there.

But with all that being said, let's go ahead and jump into Leanna's story. Now Leanna Warner's case has stumped law enforcement for two decades now. In fact, when this episode goes up, the 21 year anniversary of her disappearance will just have passed. And even though so much time has passed, it's still important to talk about cases like this because even when it feels impossible that the person will never be found, that maybe we'll never have answers, some people are found decades later. For example, I covered the story of Holly Klaus, who was abducted as a baby and found

more than 40 years later. And her story has always inspired me I think it's such a testament to never giving up and like I said her family and law enforcement Have said that they are never giving up hope that one day she will be found So getting into her background here, Leanna Marie Warner was born on January 21st 1998 her parents Kaylin and Christopher had both been married before and had kids from those Leanna Marie Warner was born on January 21st, 1998. Her parents, Kaylin and Christopher, had both been married before and had kids from those relationships,

but after the two of them fell in love, they decided they wanted to have a child with one another. That child was obviously Leanna, and she was said to have been the glue that held this blended family together. Kaylin says that it was definitely a bit of chaos having four young kids running around the house, but it was chaos that they welcomed and loved. Now at this time they were

living in Hibbing, Minnesota, which is along the Musabee Iron Range in the northeastern part of the state. And while they didn't stay in Hibbing forever, they also didn't move that far away. In early 2003, which was actually just a few months before Leanna vanished, she and her parents, along with her sister Carly, moved 10 minutes up north to Chisholm. And for those first few months, everything was as normal as ever. Leanna had adjusted really well. She was still her spunky, happy, outgoing self. Her parents and sisters describe her as an incredibly brave little girl who was friendly,

kind, and had a wildly free spirit. She also loved to play with Barbies, ride her bike, and hang out with her dad while he was hunting in the woods. They've described her as kind of switching back from girly girl to tomboy at the drop of a hat and that was one of the many things that her family say they loved about her. And if there's one thing I know for certain it's that she was and still is very loved. So that brings us to the day that Leanna disappeared. June 14th, 2003.

It was actually the Saturday before Father's Day and it was a beautiful day. So her mom, Kaylin, decided to take Carly and Leanna out to some garage sales. This was a super fun activity for them to do. You know, they can get outside, spend time together, find local treasures. This is something I love to do with my mom as a kid too, especially when you went to someone's house who had kids and there were toys and books and clothes there.

So it's always fun to go garage sailing. Carly, who was 10 at the time, said that this was something they loved to do together and that they had a great time that day. And then after they shopped around for a little while, because it was such a nice day out, they ended up driving over to a friend's house where they played and also swam before finally returning home just before 430 p.m.

When they got home, Kaylin starts unpacking the car with all of the treasures that they found out at the garage sales. And both girls come up to her while she's unloading the car and they wanted to walk over to their friend's houses. And just to be clear, these are two different houses, two different friends, and they're both close to their house. And quite frankly, Kaylyn didn't want them to go at first, especially Leanna, because she knew she was tired and that she needed a nap. But she decided to go ahead and let them go. Leanna just really, really wanted to go to her friend's house, was begging her mom,

and the friend was only a block and a half away, so she figured why not. But she did tell them that they needed to be back by five, which left them with only 30 minutes to go and play. The other day I was at the pharmacy and I was doing the drive-through and I got stuck in the line. Someone was taking a long time up at the front, which no hate, I know it happens, but I was just picking something up and obviously people were behind me too so I was stuck and I was

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two separate houses. And really nobody had any reason to believe that Liana was in any danger. They did live in a safe neighborhood in a small city and she had made the walk to this particular house several times on her own. But when five o'clock rolled around, only Carly came back home. And at first her mom wasn't too nervous because, you know, Leanna's only five years old. She figured she probably just lost track of time.

So she ends up sending Carly over to this friend's house, the Cork family, and asked her to go over there and see if Leanna was there. And she did. And then when she came back, just a couple minutes later, she tells her mom that nobody is at the Cork family house. And at this point, Kaylin definitely started to worry, but she tried to stay positive because she said she knew her daughter, that she had this adventurous side and that she probably was on some type

of adventure around the neighborhood exploring. She loved to be outside and, you know, it just sounded like that's probably what she ended up doing if no one was home at her friend's house. To be clear, though, Liana was not allowed to do this. She knew that she wasn't allowed to just wander in the neighborhood somewhere where her parents didn't know where she was. So Kaylyn didn't want to just jump to the worst case scenario. She figured she would find her daughter soon somewhere around the neighborhood. So her first move was to actually call that family whose house it was the cork family just to

make sure that they weren't home and confirm that they weren't home. They were actually out shopping at a Target 30 minutes away. But regardless, she decided to go over to that house anyway to see for herself. But all she found were Leanna's shoes, which wasn't too strange considering her daughter was always kicking off her shoes wherever she went. I mean, as so many children do, the idea that she is just around the neighborhood started to fade and the concern really started to set in. So Kaylin and Carly started making their way around the neighborhood calling out her name knocking on doors.

But besides the shoes, there were no signs of her. Neighbors quickly began to join in on the search going door to door checking nearby parks in the lake but they also couldn't find her or anything that pointed to where she could have been. But after about an hour of this the concern really started to set in for Kaylin so she ends up calling Chris and he's working for a local ambulance service at the time and she lets him know what's going on. And that's when she really starts to feel panicked. So just before 9pm, they reported Leanna missing to the Chisholm police department and a large scale search effort kicked off right away. That same night, a team of law enforcement officers began looking for Leanna and they started at

the Warner's home and worked their way outward. An extensive search of their property was performed not only to see if she was hiding there but obviously to check and make sure that her parents weren't somehow involved. And I just want to get ahead of any comments that are going to ask about that but the Warner family has been completely cleared in her disappearance. Law enforcement is very confident they did their due diligence and have confirmed that they had nothing to do with this at all. Now I also know there's going to be a lot of comments questioning Kaylin's decision

to let her daughter walk to her friend's house alone at five years old. And I understand those concerns. I do want to point out it was 2003 and times have changed a lot in the last 20 years. I definitely can't stop people from saying what they're gonna stay in the comments, but I just want to ask that you consider Keeping those thoughts to yourself. I think it's important that we acknowledge that you know That's not a great idea that letting your child walk Alone to a friend's house that young is I would definitely not recommend that. And I think most people would agree. But shaming that decision now does absolutely nothing. I mean, 20 years later, can you imagine how much guilt she has felt,

how much she wishes she could go back, turn back the clock and change that decision? I'm sure she thought about that every day for a long time. And the reason I say every day for a long time and not still today is because Kaylyn is no longer with us. She actually just recently lost her battle to cancer. And so I especially wanted to ask you guys to be kind in the comments because I'm sure that's even more hurtful

to her family now that she's gone. But anyway, like I was saying, law enforcement started at their house, thoroughly checked everything, and then started working their way outwards into the neighborhood. Late into that night, they were knocking on neighbors doors, checking in people's yards, going through garages and sheds, and even looking in old abandoned mines. They also checked out other friends houses to see if maybe Liana went to someone else's house after discovering that the Cork family wasn't home. But for the most part, it was all a dead end. And I say for the most part,

because there were two neighbors who had spotted her that night, and their sightings ended up being really helpful when it came to establishing a timeline at least. And the first witness was a man who lived next door to the Cork family. And he said that around 5.15, he saw Liana as she walked up to the cork

store and began knocking. So we know that she did go there. But then after that he ended up going inside his house and that's all that he saw. The second witness was another man who lived across the street. And he said he saw Liana around that same time. And according to what he shared with investigators, they believe that after nobody answered the door, Liana crossed the street and began walking by this man's house. And this witness basically said that he was outside working on his car and that when he saw Leanna walking by, he was worried that his puppy was going to jump on her. And so to make sure that the puppy didn't jump on her, he went inside and grabbed a leash. And by the time he came back outside, she was gone. It's hard. Disturbing. For Chris Warner.

Disturbing. To be here. This house, now boarded up on Second Street in Chisholm, is where he raised his daughter, Liana. What's your name? Liana. The little five-year-old, on a late Saturday afternoon in June, 2003, walked down the alley

to knock on a friend's door, but no one was home. There was another gentleman that lived here, and he actually saw her come make it up this far. So, and then after that, that's where, that's where we lost ourselves. That was the last known moment Liana was ever seen. And I know people are going to ask about this, especially because there was a puppy involved and oftentimes that is a tactic used when kidnapping. But this man was cleared 100% by law enforcement

and had no involvement. He is said to have been completely cooperative. He allowed law enforcement to search his property and all that was completely cleared. I just wanted to clear that up because I completely understand if that's where your mind went because that is where my mind went too,

but yeah, he is not a person of interest. But honestly, what sticks out to me most with all of this is the timing of it all. I mean, it really doesn't make sense. If Leanna had left her house at 430 and walked over to her friend's house, which would only have taken a few minutes, but both of these neighbors saw her at 5.15, that's 45 minutes where we have no idea where she was or what she was doing. Plus that also means if these two sightings are accurate that her mom and sister just missed her because they started searching for her at 5.30.

So not only does that leave such a small window of time to when she would have been taken, but it also doesn't answer the question of what she was doing for that 45 minutes. I mean, that's a pretty long time. It really makes no sense. It made no sense to anyone back then, and it still doesn't to this day. So anyway, the search went on into that night. And once it got dark, the St. Louis County Rescue Squad and local fire department were

called in to help as well. A state patrol helicopter also joined the search and they used some heat sensors to try to find out if maybe she was somewhere that they couldn't see in the dark. They even got a bloodhound out there, which is great. I mean, bloodhounds are amazing at tracking scents. But even if they do find a scent, they obviously cannot communicate to you or obviously even know when the scent was left there. So in this case the dog did end up picking up Leanna's scent, which seemed like great news at the time, but they ended up figuring out that the scent he picked up was from the day before. Specifically the dog ended up bringing investigators down by the lake and when they were there they came across a child's footprint down by the water.

This was obviously a really scary discovery and they're thinking at least at first that she may have wandered down by the lake and drown. And by this point, it was too late and too dark for them to search the water. So they waited until the next morning. And once the sun came up, the search was back in full swing. Dozens of volunteers,

as well as law enforcement officers on boats and in helicopters, checked out that lake and the area surrounding it. And this was not an easy task because this water was extremely murky and muddy. And they did this for hours, but they ended up stopping because investigators learned from Carly, her sister, that she and Leanna had been down by the water playing that Friday in the exact same spot. So literally the day before. For reference, Long Near Lake was just a couple of blocks down the street from where the Warners lived. And by June, it was already getting hot, so playing in the water wasn't unusual for the girls. It

was something they loved to do. And ultimately, because nothing turned up in the water and because this footprint was likely from the day before, it's believed that the bloodhound had tracked an old scent. And that's not to say they completely stopped checking the water, but more on that later. So recently I've been doing a lot of shopping as it's getting hotter and I've noticed I have way more long sleeve shirts and sweaters and jackets

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someone had taken her, that there was some sort of foul play here seemed more likely by this point. That weekend, there was actually a jazz festival and a motorcycle rally that had come through Chisholm and obviously that increased the amount of visitors, tourists in the area, which increased the number of possible suspects. So Chris and Kaylin ended up having a press conference where they begged anyone to come forward with a tip and it really cemented the reality that Leanna was probably taken.

Peter, come home. We miss you. We're not going to stop looking for you. We're not going to sleep until we find you. That desperate plea went unanswered as seemingly everyone in the town of 5,000 people looked for Liana. We're relatively confident that she's not anywhere in that five mile radius around Chisholm just based on the thoroughness of our search. Authorities then figured Liana must have been kidnapped. The crime seemed

impossible in a city this size just two blocks from Chisholm's idyllic downtown but there were thousands of visitors that night for a concert in Motorcycle Run. Liana's footprints found near Chisholm's Lake turned out to be from another day. Every night following Liam's disappearance, her parents kept their porch light on in hopes that she would find her way back home. But days were turning into weeks and it didn't feel like they were any closer to finding her. That being said though their community definitely was not moving on. Thousands of tips started pouring in and investigators were not ruling anyone or anything out and of course one of the first things they did is look into the

sex offender registry to see how many sex offenders were in their area. Turns out that there were 130 of them in a city of less than 5,000. And person by person, investigators corroborated their alibis to see if anyone on that registry was involved. And just based on where things are today, it doesn't sound like anyone really caught their attention. But pretty soon, it was clear that a few people in the area did end up catching their attention. On June 20th, a press conference was held where it was announced that investigators were looking for a light blue car with an antenna in the middle of the trunk. Then in early July, they announced that they were

looking for a guy who was approximately 5'10", had a dark tattoo of a star or a sun on his right arm. They also said they were looking for a man with a bald or shaved head, driving a maroon Cadillac, and a man driving a rusty brown pickup truck. Now it was never explicitly stated why they were looking for these people. I assume that they had gotten tips about people that fit these characteristics and vehicles, but that has never been confirmed and I'm not sure what they were looking for with that. But then about a month in there was one individual that really stood out to them and that was a man named Bruce Christianson. Now Bruce was a resident of Chisholm and he didn't have the best reputation to say the least. Actually he had a straight up bad reputation. He was known for burglarizing homes, for doing drugs, and just

generally being pretty unstable. And so he was someone that investigators wanted to talk to because he came up in several different tips that came in. And at one point he was actually going to come into the station and talk to police. But before that could happen, he ended up publicly threatening to kill Kaylin, Leanna's mom. You heard that right. It turns out that he just happened to be at some restaurant or bar that Chris and Kalin were at one night, and they went up to him and told him that he needed to go in and talk to police, and he completely freaked out. He started saying that he had a gun

and that he was going to shoot her, and eventually he was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats. But for as unhinged and dangerous as this man clearly was, he ended up being ruled out as a suspect because he had a rock solid alibi. So there's nothing more when it comes to him. So the searches were continuing and oddly enough, CPD didn't put out an amber alert, which is something that they have gotten rightfully so a lot of heat for and I do not understand why they didn't put out an Amber alert, which is something that they have gotten, rightfully so, a lot of heat for and I do not understand why they didn't. I mean, they have an explanation. I still just

don't understand this, but they say because they didn't have solid evidence to prove she was kidnapped that they couldn't issue an alert, even though everyone sort of knew that that was the case, which I've heard of this happening before and it's just so frustrating. But with or without an alert, the search and investigation did not stop. I mentioned earlier that Kaylin and Chris were looked into as possible suspects and cleared, which is still true, but they ended up providing investigators with some interesting information about Liana in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. I guess a few weeks before everything happened, Leanna came home one day with this case of Barbies and Barbie clothes. And so of course they ask her about this random case of Barbies and Barbie clothes. And she tells them that a little old lady gave them

to her. And at first they brushed this off. You know, they're thinking that maybe she had taken it from somewhere, taken it from a friend's house and just told them this story, which I understand. I mean, kids do make stuff up all the time and will take things from people's houses and not wanna fess up to it because they don't wanna give it back and whatever else. I can see how they didn't read too much into what she was saying at the time.

But now that she was gone, it felt like maybe there was more to that story than they knew at the time. And there's more too. Actually a week before Leanna disappeared, she told her family that she was running away. She had actually packed up a suitcase and said that she was going to go live with her new family. Now I tried to run away as a kid.

I think a lot of kids at some point have packed up their things and said that they were running away and it's, you know, definitely something to have a discussion about. But I think especially back then it was just looked at as like a normal thing kids do and almost kind of cute. But yeah, I think nowadays people have kind of a different idea when it comes to their child saying something like that and take it more seriously for the most part. And then there was another time that they found her sleeping in her closet and she told them that she did that because she was afraid that monsters were going to take her during

the night, which is also a very common thing that most kids go through. I mean, I definitely went through the monster fear myself. I really want to give them a lot of grace for this because no one ever thinks that their child is actually going to be abducted or disappear the way that Leanna did. And these are really common things for kids to say, very common experiences. So I just don't think there's, again,

any use in judging them for not doing anything about it at the time. I mean, she was five years old and like most children, she had a wild imagination and they just didn't think there was any truth to the things that she was saying. But like I said, now that she was gone, they started thinking that maybe there was some truth to some of the things that she was telling them. I will say that police did take these concerns very seriously, but at the same time, they also said they didn't find any evidence to suggest that Liana had been groomed.

Which doesn't mean she wasn't, I mean, sometimes there's not always evidence for that. But anyway, it was back to the drawing board pretty much. So that summer, while investigators were continuing to go through the sex offender registry, another tip came in that caught their attention. The call came from a woman who lived right down the street from the Warners and she said that they needed to look into her son. It turns out that this woman's boyfriend was using their family computer and he found

CP. Photos of children. I'm sure most of you know what I mean by that. But yeah, obviously this was very concerning to her and she believed that these images belonged to her son. And what's crazy is her son, whose name is Matthew Curtis, actually had already been interviewed by police a few days after Liana went missing. And at the time he claimed to know nothing about what happened to Liana.

But with this new information coming to light, the CP on the computer, several red flags were raised. Actually, all the red flags were raised. So investigators got a search warrant for his laptop and ended up charging him in connection with what they found. And of course, they also heavily questioned him about Leanna. And that was definitely the right move, considering that he only lived a few houses down from where she did. And just to clear up any confusion, he lived a couple houses down in the opposite direction from where Liana walked that day.

Anyway though, he continued to deny any connection to Liana's disappearance, but he did say something super, super weird, very off-putting and bizarre. And I've heard people say things like this in the past, but he said that even if he did, they wouldn't be able to find her. Which just irks me so bad. I mean, why even say something like that? And it makes you look super guilty. I still, I don't know, I have my thoughts on him for sure,

but what makes it all even worse is that he ended up taking his own life. It was actually on the day that he was supposed to appear in court on the possession of CP charges that his body was found in a gravel pit with a plastic bag over his head. There were some rumors that someone may have killed him, but investigators conclusively ruled

that he had done it to himself. And what makes me so angry and I'm sure all of you and so many others who have followed this case is that he did this before he was fully questioned regarding Leanna. Even though they had searched his truck and found nothing to indicate that she had ever been inside or any other evidence linking him to what happened, they still would have liked the chance to talk to him about it more and close that chapter officially. If he wasn't involved and we certainly don't know if he was or not. If you've been listening to my show for a while, you probably know that I love animals

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Authorities questioned several people, including a 24-year-old who lived down the street, whom they charged with child... All the agencies that worked on the case would like to have followed up with Matt to try to determine what if any involvement he had. But unfortunately, that ended when he took his own life. Was that the best lead that ever came forward? In my opinion, yeah. Anyway, in October of that year,

they ended up partially draining Longyear Lake with the hopes that they could find something that they missed earlier, but even doing that turned up nothing. And unfortunately, because the winter was approaching and things were starting to of course freeze over, the search efforts were paused. Not to mention, none of the tips that they were following up on were panning out in any way.

So as you can imagine, the Warner family is really at a low point at this time. And of course, they at this point want to get any coverage, any awareness that they can and bring in even more tips. So they end up getting the opportunity to go on the Montel Williams show. And of course they wanted to do it. And this really pisses me off. I just cannot believe this actually happened to them. But when they were on the show, they weren't even warned that this was going to happen.

But they bring out a psychic to speak to them. And this is a popular psychic actually, her name is Sylvia Brown, I'm sure many of you have heard of her. She is also known for incorrectly predicting that, or confidently saying, might I add, that Amanda Barry was dead, who ended up being found years later.

I'm sure many of you have heard of that case, I have covered it before. But like I said, they had no idea that she was gonna be on the show. She comes out in front of a whole studio audience, and this is later aired on TV, and tells them that their daughter was dead and that they could find her in a yellow car. Now I know that the use of psychics when it comes to these cases is very debated. People have different thoughts. I've actually heard some FBI agents talking about how it can be really helpful in

some cases. I think the general consensus among law enforcement is that it's not, but I have heard of successful predictions happening. So I don't want to completely exnay it, but in my opinion, it's really especially inappropriate to bring someone like that out without the family's permission in front of all these people and tell them something so dramatic. So as you can imagine this was a horrible horrible experience that just made everything worse for this family and all of that pain anger and trauma that Kailin was going through sort of accumulated one night in October when Kailin actually got in an argument with Chris and hit him with her car.

Now she didn't purposely do this. Chris explained that they had gone to a convenience store together. They started arguing in the parking lot. He gets out of the car and she was backing away and accidentally backed into him. Now he didn't want to press charges. She felt horrible. I mean, she's no longer with us now, but from her interviews in the past, she explained how this was just such a low point in her life. She was in complete despair and feels terrible that this happened. But like I said, he didn't want to press charges, but the police had no choice and they did end up pressing charges. She ended up pleading guilty to a gross misdemeanor and served two years probation. And Chris actually says that despite what happened, that it was a turning point in their marriage. This whole thing helped her realize that she

needed to seek therapy for her depression related to her daughter's disappearance. And she ended up getting the help that she needed. But now I want to jump forward to the one year mark since Liana disappeared. By this point, the Warners are still working with a private investigator and he was coordinating and conducting searches as well. He helped to expand the search radius from five miles to 12, but even with the help of volunteers and search and rescue dogs, nothing turned up. So once again, this case sort of hit a lull. That was until 2005 when a serial killer was arrested and they found Leanna's name mentioned

in his online diary. So this man is named Joseph Edward Duncan and he is a terrible, disgusting, filthy excuse for a human. And in 2005 2005 he was caught after he abducted two little kids and killed their parents and older brother. Out of the two he kidnapped, only the little girl survived and she was the one who told police that he had killed others before. Not just her family, but he told her there were others too. When they were investigating him for those crimes, they ended up finding his blog. And in January of 2004, which is only about a year after Leanna disappeared,

they found a post that mentioned her name and it reads, "'Just found out that a five-year-old girl "'went missing from Chisholm, Minnesota "'on June 14th, 2003, this year. "'I did not even know until today that this happened, "'so I tried to figure out what I was doing on that day "'since I'm always afraid of getting accused when something like this happens Dot dot dot so he's basically saying he's scared. He's gonna be blamed for what happened to her

Which is strange considering a lot of his other posts talk about wanting to hurt humanity now Here's what's strange though when investigators were looking into him They found a GPS device in his car and it provided really detailed data points about where Joseph had been and when and based on that data and the fact that he had a rock-solid alibi There was just no way that he was responsible for what happened to Leanna And so things went cold once again and they stayed cold up until 2007 when investigators got a call from Bruce Christensen, saying that he was responsible for what happened to Leanna.

And if you remember, Bruce Christensen is the one who threatened to kill Leanna's mom, Kaylin. He ended up going to jail on some unrelated charges, and while he was there, he called up investigators and said he was ready to talk. Now, of course, this brings up a lot of emotion. You know, her family is feeling positive, like they might actually get some answers, but also scared of what he might have to say.

But this just ended up being a false confession. Turns out that Bruce had actually stabbed someone in jail and was now facing an additional 30 years behind bars. And in an attempt to get outside one last time, he lied about killing Leanna. He literally went out with a team of investigators and led them to an unmarked grave. And when they dug up this grave, it ended up just being the remains of a cat. It was all just a ploy that he used to get outside one last time at their expense, which is just infuriating. I can't believe people actually do it, but

it really shouldn't surprise me, right? But afterwards he admitted to lying about the entire thing. And once again, investigators are back to square one. So following this and following years of disappointment and sadness, the Warners ended up selling their home in Chisholm in an effort to try and move forward as best as they can. I mean, by no means were they giving up on Leanna at all, but being in that home was a constant reminder that she was not with them and truthfully, it no longer felt safe or like home to them. And I totally get that. Kaylin really struggled with the decision to move and was afraid that if her daughter really did come home one day that she wouldn't be there for her but the daily reminder of being in that home was finally enough to make them want

to leave. Year after year though this family never gave up. They continued to push for answers and always really held on to that hope which I think is really incredible. Now Chief Vern Manor who has worked the case since 2003, says that every year they get tips, and some are better than others, but they're continuing to this day to follow up on everything they receive. Even 10, 15, and now 20 years since Leanna disappeared,

her family, the community, and law enforcement have never given up hope and have never closed the case to this day. Chris says that the support they continue to receive has meant the absolute world to them and they feel that even after all this time, it's clear that nobody has forgotten her. If you remember, it was Father's Day weekend when his daughter disappeared and I can't

imagine how hard Father's Day is for him every year. And when this episode goes up, I believe Father's Day has just passed and I'm sure it was just as hard for him as it has always been. He has also talked about how hard it is to look at that age-progressed picture of her. I mean, he's super grateful that it's out there. It's a very useful tool, but I can see how it would be really hard to look at your child and see them the way that they possibly would be today and think about all the years you've missed out on. I truly cannot imagine what that would be like, how painful, I mean, painful doesn't even seem like enough, how gut wrenching, devastating, just horrific

that would be to go through. Now, obviously these pictures, which were created by Nekmek, are instrumentally important in cases like this. I mean, we know that Leanna definitely looks a lot different now, as anyone would after aging 20 years. And so the idea is to get the best possible

age progression out there to people in case someone recognizes her as she is now. Regardless of all the pain that this family has been through, Chris says that they are still not giving up. There is a quote from him and it says, if I were to let myself fall apart and not move forward and she was to come home tomorrow, what would she come home to? That was a big driving factor for me to get back on my feet.

You never forget. You never truly move on. You just figure out how to live with the hand you've been dealt. Liana's sisters, Carly and Whitney, have also been very outspoken, very active in the case as well. They work closely with NECMEC and really try to be the voice of justice in Liana's case, even after all these years. And they became even more active after their mother passed away.

My sister vanished when she was five years old in 2003 and we are still looking for her every single day. She's been gone for 21 long long years. She said I'm going to my friend's house and that was it. Like that was the last time I saw her. Five o'clock comes around, my mom is saying that she doesn't know where Liana is, can I go look for her? I'm crying, driving o'clock comes around, my mom is saying that she doesn't know where Liana is, can I go look for her? I'm crying, driving my little bike all around time, screaming her name, and it's just, it was a lot, but I remember all of it. Imagine yourself being nine and ten years old when your sister's kidnapped, and then it's just become a part of your entire being, your whole life, your adolescent years, your young teenage

years, every single growing up portion of your life and framing who you are as a person to then we're taking on a missing child's case for our mom. No one in the world can prepare us for this. No one could tell us what to like expect to happen or what to do in the situation that we're in. We're sisters, you know, there's something so different about a sister bond. You need the closure as a family. I think even the state of Minnesota, the Iron Range, everybody that's ever followed her story needs the closure. Like I mentioned earlier, Kaylin did pass away due to cancer. That happened in December of 2022 after being very suddenly diagnosed and she dedicated nearly 20 years of her life searching for her baby girl. It makes me so sad to know that she never got those answers and

all I can hope is that wherever her soul rests now that maybe she has peace and maybe even answers. I mean, who really knows, right? I have lots of memories of Vienna. She was a feisty one. Very feisty. Sisterhood is a bond never broken. I was eight, she was five. So we always were fighting. But then I just remember the constant love and appreciation that I had for her and she had for me. On June 14, 2003, Whitney Shep's younger sister, Leanna Warner, disappeared. Now 20 years later, their family is still fighting for answers and grieving another loss. Shep's mother, Kaylin, passed

away in December after a short battle with cancer. We didn't know how intense it was until my mom was gone, obviously, and all the burdens that she was taking on handling a lot of this stuff by herself. Shep says she and her other sister, Carly, have received a lot of help and support from Missing Children Minnesota, an advocacy group.

Executive Director Theresa Lotka says continued advocacy for missing children is vital. Until we have answers as to what happened to Leanna, I believe everybody deserves to have that space held for them. I believe that every family deserves answers. I believe that every missing person deserves to be found. Lotka says even though it's been 20 years, there's always the possibility for new information about Leanna's disappearance to emerge.

I absolutely have hope that she's still out there. We want her home. We need her to come home. And we're gonna do whatever it takes to try to get answers to get her home. 20 years missing, but never forgotten. Now before I wrap up today's episode, I want to once again, draw your attention to the age progressed images provided by NECMEC because they really are absolutely critical in cases

of long term missing children. And if you're watching this episode, you've already seen the pictures on screens several times by now, but they have created a handful of these images of Liana over the years. And if you are listening to this episode, you can, you know, type in her name and quickly be able to find these. There are three different age progressions that have been done over the years and getting these photos out there could mean the difference between this case remaining cold or potentially being solved.

So if you're able to, as always, I ask that you share these photos or share this episode or share any coverage on Leanna's case because the more eyes that see Leanna's face, the better. In a 2022 article on NECMEC's website, they've shared that their forensic artist team has completed more than 7,500 age progressions and that 1,800 of those children have actually been recovered. And in some of those cases, it's directly because of the age progress photo. So that just tells you alone how crucial these age progressions really are. I'm so grateful for the work that NECMEC does. I mean, I've said it so many times, but their team is incredible.

I mean, getting the honor to go out to their headquarters and really see them in action and meet so many of them and just see how passionate they are about the work they do was super inspiring. And so that's why this week I wanted to make an additional donation to NECMEC in honor of Liana. She deserves to be found and her family deserves to finally get those answers before another 21 years has passed. Liana Marie Warner was approximately 3'2 and 50 pounds when she went missing. She is Caucasian with brown eyes and dark brown hair that was cut into a short bob at the time of her disappearance. She was wearing a blue denim dress with an attached belt, orange Hanes underwear, a flower-shaped earring and had no shoes or socks on. Liana also has a mole above her left ankle and a dimple on the back of her left shoulder and if you have or socks on. Leanna also has a mole above her left ankle

and a dimple on the back of her left shoulder. And if you have any information on her disappearance, no matter how small you may think it is, it could be the tip that cracks this case wide open. So if you do, please call the Chisholm Police Department at 218-254-7915 or NECMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST. And once again, I encourage you to check out our NECMEC collection. 100% of the proceeds goes directly to their life saving work. And I would really appreciate it. I know they would really appreciate it. And once again, thank you to everyone who has

supported our campaign so far. I wish so badly I had more to share only in his case that there was more solid leads or you know anything more than what we have. I mean it's really frustrating the amount of dead ends that they have been through and how much trauma this family has been through throughout these years and I just really feel for them. My heart truly goes out to the Warner family. truly goes out to the Warner family. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out.

If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Rae. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there.