Speaker 1: Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Hunting for Answers, a
Speaker 1: true crime podcast. I'm your host Hunter, and today we're
Speaker 1: talking about a case out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It all
Speaker 1: started in June twenty twenty two, when a fifteen year
Speaker 1: old girl was supposed to go get her work permit
Speaker 1: with her father that afternoon, but when her father arrived
Speaker 1: to pick her up that day.
Speaker 2: She was nowhere to be found. That was three years ago.
Speaker 1: What police would discover would raise terrifying questions about what
Speaker 1: really happened to this vulnerable teenager. This is the story
Speaker 1: of Jenia Walker. Jenia Walker was born on May fifteenth,
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2: By June twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Two, she was a fifteen year old girl living on
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's North Side. At the time of her disappearance, she
Speaker 1: stood five feet three inches tall and weighed one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty pounds. Her mother described her as a perfect daughter.
Speaker 1: She was angelic, soft spoken, and very intelligent. But Jania
Speaker 1: was also struggling at the time. You see, she had
Speaker 1: been diagnosed with depression and post traumatic stress disorder. Her
Speaker 1: therapist knew that she was having some difficulties, but even
Speaker 1: they couldn't have predicted what was about to happen. June
Speaker 1: twenty third, twenty twenty two, it should have.
Speaker 2: Been an exciting day for Jenia.
Speaker 1: She was scheduled to go with her father to get
Speaker 1: her work permit for her first job at a pizzeria, but.
Speaker 2: It appeared as if some thing was troubling Jenia. That day.
Speaker 1: At two thirty pm, a neighbor's ring camera captured her
Speaker 1: walking away from her mother's North Side Milwaukee apartment. She
Speaker 1: was alone at three twenty seven pm. Phone record show
Speaker 1: Jenia called her therapist. Later that evening, she sent a
Speaker 1: text message to the same therapist. The message was short
Speaker 1: and to the point, she expressed running away from home.
Speaker 1: That was the last communication anyone would ever receive from
Speaker 1: Jenia Walker. Her mother also stated how she believes Jenia
Speaker 1: was definitely groomed and lured away. When Jania's father, Jonathan
Speaker 1: arrived that day at four pm to pick up his daughter,
Speaker 1: of course we know that she was gone. He tried
Speaker 1: calling her phone, it went straight to voicemail. Her mother,
Speaker 1: Tanisha Howard, tried the same thing again, nothing but the
Speaker 1: voicemail That's when they knew something was terribly wrong. Jania
Speaker 1: had never run away before, and despite her mental health challenges,
Speaker 1: this behavior was completely out of character for her. On
Speaker 1: June twenty eighth, five days after Jania disappeared, her mother
Speaker 1: walked into a Milwaukee police station to update authorities with
Speaker 1: disturbing information she had discovered. Tanisha had been digging through
Speaker 1: her daughter's online activity. The teen was active on sites
Speaker 1: like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, YouTube, Gmail, as well as
Speaker 1: some other websites for adults. However, it wasn't just the
Speaker 1: platforms that were concerning, it was who Jenia was talking to.
Speaker 1: When Jania's older sister, Mackenzie Thompson gained access to her
Speaker 1: Snapchat account, she discovered what police reports described as disturbing videos.
Speaker 1: Every single friend on Jenia's Snapchat account appeared to be
Speaker 1: older men, some located nationally, others internationally. The majority of
Speaker 1: her messages had been deleted, but the videos dated all
Speaker 1: the way back to January twenty twenty and ended in
Speaker 1: June twenty twenty two, right when Jenia disappear. Among all
Speaker 1: of the online connections, one name kept coming up, Zach.
Speaker 1: Police reports described Zach as a white male with red
Speaker 1: hair and a beard from Pennsylvania. Jania's mother said her
Speaker 1: daughter was very obsessed with this man. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: when Jenia was just eleven years old, she had written
Speaker 1: a letter to Zach. The letter had been addressed to
Speaker 1: a location in Pennsylvania, but it was never mailed. When
Speaker 1: Jania disappeared, that letter had also disappeared too. Her mother
Speaker 1: believes Jenia might have taken it with her. Police eventually
Speaker 1: tracked down Zach at that Pennsylvania address. When interviewed, he
Speaker 1: admitted to speaking with Jenia on Snapchat when he was
Speaker 1: approximately seventeen years old, but he denied ever meeting her
Speaker 1: or knowing where she might be. As investigators dug deeper
Speaker 1: into Jenia's final months, they discovered she had also been
Speaker 1: preparing for something else. Jania had been watching YouTube videos
Speaker 1: about doomsday prepping and living off the grid. She was
Speaker 1: researching survival skills like how to survive in disasters. She
Speaker 1: had also recently read two books about learning the German language.
Speaker 2: In the months.
Speaker 1: Before her disappearance, Jania had also lost a significant amount
Speaker 1: of weight. Her mother had taken her to the doctor
Speaker 1: and scheduled a follow up appointment with a specialist, but
Speaker 1: that appointment never happened because Jenia vanished first. When Jania
Speaker 1: left that day, she didn't take any of.
Speaker 2: Her own clothing.
Speaker 1: Instead, she took all boys clothing and possibly some of
Speaker 1: her brother's clothes.
Speaker 2: She may have also taken.
Speaker 1: Her Chrome HP laptop, the reason Jenia had stopped living
Speaker 1: with her father. Jonathan reveals just how deep her online
Speaker 1: relationships had become. One day, he walked into his daughter's
Speaker 1: bedroom unannounced and heard her say that she loved a
Speaker 1: man who was on her iPad. When he looked at
Speaker 1: the screen, he saw an older, white male. Jenia immediately
Speaker 1: closed the iPad, and the only way to open it
Speaker 1: was with her fingerprint. Jonathan reportedly considered waiting for his
Speaker 1: daughter to fall asleep that night so he could access
Speaker 1: the device, but instead he called Jenia's mother. When police
Speaker 1: became involved, they said they would need to get a
Speaker 1: search warrant. Jonathan decided to just let Jenia live with
Speaker 1: her mother instead. He didn't want to risk his home
Speaker 1: being gransacked by authorities. Her father also found entries in
Speaker 1: Jenia's diary. One page read of how she was glad
Speaker 1: that her father didn't get into her iPad that night.
Speaker 1: During his police interview, Jonathan broke.
Speaker 2: Down and began crying.
Speaker 1: The evidence suggests Jenia might have known she was going
Speaker 1: to disappear. On the day she went missing, Jenia logged
Speaker 1: out of her Facebook mobile app. Her email records appeared
Speaker 1: to show she had deactivated her Find MyPhone app on
Speaker 1: both her iPad and iPhone. She had also been turning
Speaker 1: off her location services on her phone. Jonathan had noticed
Speaker 1: that Jenia was making videos at three seventeen am while
Speaker 1: at her mother's house. She had been using massive amounts
Speaker 1: of Internet data, which her father believed was from apps
Speaker 1: she was using to communicate with people online. But perhaps
Speaker 1: most telling, Jenia's therapist had told her mother that Jenia
Speaker 1: did express the intention to run away now. In the
Speaker 1: weeks following Jenia's disappearance, her mother, Tanisha, became the target
Speaker 1: of very cruel scammers. One morning, at two forty five am,
Speaker 1: Tanisha woke up to a text message from an unidentified
Speaker 1: person calling from a Google number. The person claimed to
Speaker 1: know where her daughter was and said Jenia had been
Speaker 1: sexually assaulted but was still alive. The person demanded five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars first in bitcoin, then through cash app in
Speaker 1: exchange for Jenia's location. When Tanisha couldn't comply with the demands,
Speaker 1: the person said, stop playing with me and threatened to
Speaker 1: stop talking. Tanisha also received calls from inmates at prisons
Speaker 1: in Richmond, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina. These calls appeared
Speaker 1: to be unrelated to Jenia's case, but further added to
Speaker 1: the family's torment. Police advised Tanisha that these were likely scamps,
Speaker 1: predators trying to take advantage of a family's desperation. Milwaukee
Speaker 1: police pursued several leads in Jenia's case. Her photos were
Speaker 1: compared against a confidential Debta base to see if she
Speaker 1: appeared on any human trafficking sites.
Speaker 2: The search yielded no results.
Speaker 1: Investigators followed up on the mysterious addresses and phone numbers
Speaker 1: found in Jania's iCloud notes, but these leads didn't produce
Speaker 1: evidence either. Police have also investigated various phone numbers that
Speaker 1: appeared to be connected to Jenia, including one associated with
Speaker 1: the name Zach that was sent to her through Snapchat.
Speaker 1: Despite all of these efforts, Jania Walker remains missing today,
Speaker 1: more than three years after Jania Walker vanished. Her case
Speaker 1: remains open and active. In twenty twenty four, the National
Speaker 1: Center for Missing and Exploited Children created an age progression
Speaker 1: image showing what Jania might look like today as a
Speaker 1: seventeen year old. The case has all the signs of
Speaker 1: online predation. Did someone convince Jenia to run away with
Speaker 1: promises of love or.
Speaker 2: A better life? Was she trafficked? Is she still alive.
Speaker 1: Somewhere or did her trust in the wrong person lead
Speaker 1: to something darker. Jania's disappearance has left a family shattered
Speaker 1: and a community still searching for answers. Her mother describes
Speaker 1: Jania as someone who was socially awkward and soft spoken,
Speaker 1: characteristics that may have made her an easy target for
Speaker 1: online predators. Every day that passes without answers is another
Speaker 1: day of agony for her loved ones. My thoughts and
Speaker 1: prayers are with the Walker family, loved ones, and everyone
Speaker 1: who continues the search for Jenia. Anyone with information about
Speaker 1: Jenia's whereabouts should contact the Milwaukee Police Department or the
Speaker 1: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Speaker 2: You can find their.
Speaker 1: Contact information in the description box below. As we close
Speaker 1: out this episode, don't forget to click the follow button
Speaker 1: to stay updated on Jenia's case and others like it.
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Speaker 1: Prime updates. And if you enjoyed this story, leave us
Speaker 1: a five star rating. Thank you so much for joining
Speaker 1: us on another episode.
Speaker 2: Until next time.
Speaker 1: The sac
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