WEBVTT - Lost and Found: Lauren Heath 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:03.720 Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:10.479 Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome to Hunting for Answers, a 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:15.840 true crime podcast. I'm your host Hunter and in this episode, 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:20.280 we're discussing a case out of Monroe, North Carolina, a 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.120 small community shaken to its core when a sixteen year 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:29.600 old girl vanished without warning. Her disappearance would ignite a 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:35.080 desperate search stretch across multiple states and expose a chilling 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:40.080 truth about the dangers lurking on the internet. We spoke 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.360 with her father, who walked us through the terrifying weeks 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:48.120 of the investigation, the emotional reunion with his daughter, and 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:50.960 their path towards healing in the Afterpath. 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.240 This is the story of Lauren Heath. 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:05.240 October thirteenth, twenty twenty three began like any other day, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.640 but for the Heath family, it quickly turned into every 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:10.959 parent's first nightmare. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.000 I would say, you know, like a month or two prior, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.360 you know, my wife and I had noticed, you know, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:17.119 changing her. 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.000 She seemed to be a little bit more. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:26.440 Withdrawing, so to speak, not talking a lot. Because she 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.160 was playing volleyball at her previous high school and she 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.000 was a cheerleader but I remember seeing her in a 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:35.480 phone call from her she leaving head coach there at 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.600 a camp saying how much my daughter was so withdrawn 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.520 from the team, not interacting, you know, with their teammates, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.880 not talking, want to be by herself. And they even 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.120 asked her that night when she called me, like, hey, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.600 do you want me come get you if you're not 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.000 comfortable being there? She's like, no, I'm gonna stick it out, 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.080 because you know, as parents will always tell our kids, 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.240 if you start something, finish it. But it was several 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.960 conversations that my daughter would have, like when I would 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.559 take her to school, she always would make the comment 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.680 like she feels like she's somebody else's friend, but they're 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.120 not her so to speak, like she's trying too hard 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:15.560 and they're not reciprocated. What's needing a good solid friendship? 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.280 And I say, hey, you know, don't take it personal. 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.280 You know, just as parents we tell our kids, you know, 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:22.880 it's life. It's part of growing up, especially being a teenager, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.399 especially being young females to go through a lot of changes, 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.919 and you know, they pick and choose friends from week 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:30.160 to week, could be day to day. 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.919 Bring camera footage showed Lauren leaving her home in Indian Trail, 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:41.520 North Carolina. There were no warning signs, no goodbye, just 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:47.200 a quiet exit into the unknown. Her father, Gary Keith, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:52.080 recalls noticing changes in Lauren in the week's prior. Like 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:57.400 many teens, she began struggling, but he now sees the signs. 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.000 They mess But it's one thing my wife and I, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:05.360 you know, regret doing. It's not I mean, we heard 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.600 her daughter, heard our daughter, but we didn't like fully listen. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.160 You know, when you're like your kids are crying out constantly, 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.480 it's easy for us as parents to say, hey, go 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:20.440 to school, wear that crown strongly ahead, be strong, be yourself. 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.600 But when you got to live in that world five 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.600 days a week, for seven and a half hours a day, 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.480 it's different. And you know that's my wife and I 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.680 looking back on that, we wish we would have really 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.520 delved deeply more into that, you know, while she was 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:39.480 expressing about her being withdrawn everything like that, but you know, 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.480 you know, I think that was part of it. You know, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.760 the the friendships weren't a solid that she might have wanted. 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.800 She would say telling us things like kids were saying 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.560 certain things to her and make her feel down or depressed, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.120 and she lost her self esteem, so to speak. So 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.160 I think that's what led up to her disappearance. I 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.000 felt like she just wanted to just drop it all 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:05.840 and just go away. 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.360 Despite her challenges, Lauren was excited about her school's upcoming 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:13.320 homecoming dance. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.520 She had a nail appointment scheduled and. 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.800 Was looking forward to the event, hardly the actions of 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:25.279 someone planning to heat. That's what made her disappearance all 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:31.680 the more alarming. This wasn't like Lauren. Her behavior didn't 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:37.640 match someone who wanted to just disappear. As hours turned 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:44.240 into days, Hannick settled in. The seconds dragged like hours, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.560 and the longer she was gone, the worse the fear became. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.760 But the Heath family wasn't alone. The Monroe community rallied together. 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:04.920 Candlelight viguals were held blanketed neighborhoods. Billboards appeared in North Carolina, 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:13.440 South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia. Lauren's face became 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:20.320 impossible to miss, But despite the overwhelming support, the silence 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:27.719 was deafening. Lauren's parents spoke out to her in every 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:33.560 public message, Come home, we love you. There's no obstacle 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:39.760 too big to bring you back. Still, one thing was unmistakable. 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:45.039 The police response in those critical early days was dismissive. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:50.359 Like many cases involving missing black girls, Lauren's disappearance didn't 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.960 trigger the kind of urgency it deserved. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.440 Initially when she went missing on the thirteenth, of course, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:02.480 we made a police report and the police were so 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.839 nonchalant about it. It was just like here we go again, 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.320 another missing child. So you know, we'd write it down 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:12.240 and he was kind of nonchalot about it with you know, 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:14.680 kind of got out of my skin with my wife 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.719 and I and he just kind of took it and 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.560 just left and like, hey, we really need to hear something, 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.039 you know about this case. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:24.479 Like so that was on a Friday. 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.000 We my wife and I had to literally go down 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.480 to the police station first thing Monday morning and helped 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.839 get a detective assigned to the case. So two whole 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.839 days had gone by with nothing, and I even called 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.040 the dispatch and see about follow up because it was 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.400 asking me about her cell phone on what selles service 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.200 did we use and everything like that. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.720 Her father told us plainly, if it weren't for the community, 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:59.800 stepping up. There's no telling where the case would stand. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.159 Re union response was awesome. You know, my neighbors in 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.760 my neighborhood went out looking. My neighbor across the street. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.200 She was awesome because she said she knew this house 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:11.960 where a lot of teenagers would go and just hang 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.000 out and just drink blah blah blah. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:14.880 She went there. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.840 So the community response was awesome those first two days 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.960 she went miss up until the time my wife and 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.440 I had to go to the police station, and luckily 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:29.960 it worked out. The chief of police I used to 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.240 coach his son in football, so when he saw me, 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.920 he told his detective like, hey, anything he wants, you 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:39.040 make sure he gets it. So it pays to know 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.320 people like I tell people, don't burn your bridges because 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:43.720 you never know you might need somebody. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:49.000 So once I got to him, it was a lot better. 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.120 The detective was very responsive to us about you know, 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:58.240 any type of leaves or anything. We had people down 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.119 the street. Lady she has a farm down the street. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.559 She even offered, like her ATV to like go out 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.840 and look you know out you know, in the community 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.800 or whatever. So the community response was awesome. You know, 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.400 we made flyers. People were come by and your flyers 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.160 and put them up for us. There's this little biker 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:22.800 house down the street. They had cameras, but they might 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:24.880 have thought she might have, you know, left from They 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.040 let us go down. They look at their cameras, but 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:32.839 it was overwhelming the response that we received from the community, even. 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:37.559 With tips pouring in, time tap slipping away, no breakthroughs, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:43.600 no confirmed sightings, no real leads, just a growing sense 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.720 that Lauren might be getting further and further away. Then, 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:55.080 nearly two weeks later, Hope arrived in Kirkwood, Missouri. Police 0:08:55.120 --> 0:09:00.400 officers investigating a suspicious vehicle parked outside a Low's made 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.559 a discovery that would bring this nightmare to a shock 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:08.160 and turning point. Inside the car was a thirty year 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:13.440 old convicted sex offender, and in the passenger seat sixteen 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.920 year old Laurenn Heath. Authorities learned that the man had 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.440 been communicating with Lauren through an anonymous messaging app. He 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:28.920 exploited her emotional vulnerability, manipulated her with false promises, and 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.440 drove all the way from Oklahoma to North Carolina to 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.679 pick her up. She was carrying her birth certificate and 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:42.920 had even memorized her mother's phone number, details that ultimately 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.240 helped police confirm her identity and notify her parents. 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:53.760 Having those conversations with your child or children about social 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:55.240 media because like I said, it's a beast. 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:58.400 It's like I said, it's a gift in the curse. 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.880 And you know, you have these apps that have been 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.520 created where it looks like one thing, but it's something 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.000 else where they little children. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.520 They I know it's one app. I know, the FBI 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:09.160 was showing us. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.440 It looks like a calculator, but behind it it's a 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.280 way that these predators talk to children. 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:17.320 Wow. 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.080 Yeah, so it was the particular app. I don't think 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:25.080 they even have it anymore. It's called Whisper. That was 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:29.040 the main culport in this case. It's almost like the 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.840 dark web, so to speak. Behind these apps, because these 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.520 predators have ways of getting to children, whether it be 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:40.040 online I know, and speaking with people. 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:40.480 I know. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.960 The police officers showed me down the street how these 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.439 they would change their voice online to sound like a child, 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.360 and you think you're playing with another twelve year old 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:51.640 and it comes out it's somebody forty or fifty years old. 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:58.040 They use this, you know, this voice altering like headset and. 0:10:57.960 --> 0:10:59.760 That's like so I would tell my kids, you know, 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:02.600 you have to be careful. You know who you're on 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:04.840 line with. Less you're just your close friends from school 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.520 and somebody you know personally. Don't talk to him. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.160 The moment the call came in, Lauren's parents dropped to 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:16.520 their knees. Relief overwhelmed them. They didn't even put on 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.559 the proper shoes before rushing to the airport to catch 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.760 the first flight to Missouri. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:24.520 When they were reunited with their. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:29.560 Daughter, it felt, mister Heath said, like holding a newborn 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:34.400 for the second time. And though joy filled the reunion, 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:40.080 the trauma lingered and the road to healing would. 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:40.720 Be next. 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.760 The first I would say. She came on October twenty fifth. 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:52.680 I would say probably until maybe four or five months 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.280 after that, it was still a struggle trying to get her. 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.280 The focus and open up. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.800 Of course, we did immediately get her into therapy when 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.760 still it now that has helped out tremendously. I will 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.760 say she's come a long way since then. She's in 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:12.280 a new high school. She's cheering, she loves it, she's 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:16.880 making new friends. So I believe this new high school 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:23.480 has done her leaps and bounds of getting herself a 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.440 stayed back making new friends because, like I said, her 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.840 previous high school, for whatever reason, just was not the 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:31.240 place for her. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.520 Lauren came home on October twenty fifth, twenty twenty three, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.840 but in the days and months that followed, her family 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.800 would face a new set of challenges. Therapy became a 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:47.040 part of the healing process. A new high school brought 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:52.560 a fresh start, but emotionally, her father described it as 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:53.720 life altering. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:55.200 Quote. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.079 It changes you as a person, he said. We used 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.760 to beat ourselves up up, but we know we're good parents. 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.800 One thing they are absolutely certain of Lauren was not 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.720 to blame. She was coerced and groomed by a sick individual. 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:18.000 Mister Heath said, she's the victim and she needs to 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:23.920 know this isn't her fault. According to investigators, predators like 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:28.920 this pray on children expressing vulnerability online. They scan for 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:34.800 keywords emotional distress and then pose as saviors only to 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:38.559 lead their victims into unimaginable danger. 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.440 In fact, I just spoke to the federal prosecutor yesterday 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:48.000 because with him having federal charges and also state charges, 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.960 with him crossing state lines with our daughter. There's so 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.560 much they have to get worked out far as the 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.200 charges and get what to plea to for him. So 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.320 it's kind of like in a holding past. He's what 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:02.880 I do know, he would never see. 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:03.240 The light of day. 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.680 Thankfully, Lauren's story ends with a reunion with her family, 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.760 but for far too many other families, that call never 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.960 comes in, that moment of relief never arrives. 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.480 Because my wife and I you know, talk about all 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.880 the time like we were truly blessed to get our 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.320 daughter back. But I know when I look at and 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:30.360 I still part of black and Missing and all these 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.280 missing children sites, always repost and share every kid that 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:37.760 comes across my timeline because I know exactly how those 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:39.920 parents feel. So I can only imagine if your child's 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.720 been missing for months or years, you know what type 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:48.680 of you know, mental state those parents are in. The 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.680 best advice I can give parents with children that are 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:59.320 missing is to stay relentless and get closure to your situation. 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.800 Because I told my wife, I said, regardless of what 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.800 happens with our daughter, I just want to know that 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.000 I never quit to parents. Like I said, there's no 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.400 handbook to this, to being a parent. You can be 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.720 the best parent in the world, and if something tragedy 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.400 like this does happen, you can't ever doubt yourself as 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:21.080 a parent. If you'd have told me this would happened 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.120 to my family, I was like, you're crazy. That will 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.480 never happen to my daughter. But like I said, nobody's 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.560 immune to this. Nobody. Biggest thing for me as a 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:33.920 father is to be more of a listener to her 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.480 rather try to tell her how to feel, you know, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.440 because she has the right to feel the way she 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.280 wants to, like anybody else, regardless of them being your children. 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.320 So I think that's the biggest thing for me, is 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:49.760 to really let her be herself and her feelings and 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.560 try to work it out through her lens and not mind. 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.760 As we close out this episode, don't forget to hit 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.760 the follow button to stay updated on this case and 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.680 others like it. Subscribe to Hunting for Answers on YouTube 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.840 to watch the visuals to this episode, and follow us 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:09.960 on Instagram and TikTok for more true crime updates. And 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.960 if you enjoyed this story, leave us a five star rating. 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:18.120 Thank you so much for joining us on another episode. 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:20.560 Until next time. 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.720 Hunting for Answers is a production of the Black Effect 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:30.160 Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:35.720 visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:37.040 to your favorite shows.