In 1985, This Missouri Teen Vanished After Leaving Her Friend’s House One Evening: Then, Years Later, Her Mother Began Receiving Threatening Calls Demanding Money In Exchange For Her Daughter

However, as time went on, it became clear that the advice provided to Karen was detrimental to Jody’s case.

It is now well known that the first forty-eight hours following a person’s disappearance is the most critical investigative window– and the time when the likelihood of a missing person being found is substantially higher. But tragically, Jody was never actually reported missing.

Instead, while Karen was conversing with her daughter’s caseworker about two years later, she learned that her daughter had never actually been reported missing to the police. Plus, this conversation only ever occurred because the first warrant out for Jody was ultimately canceled in July 1986 by the courts.

There is a lack of information about what happened next– such as investigative efforts– after Karen made this discovery. However, three years later, the teen’s Juvenile Officer then received a strange letter in 1989.

The author of the letter claimed to be Jody herself– stating that the teen was okay. However, the correspondence never explained why the teen left, and it is unclear whether or not Jody really wrote the note.

The handwriting was reportedly compared to other writing that Jody had previously penned before her disappearance. And her mother remains uncertain if the handwriting was actually her daughter’s.

Then, four years later, in 1993, Karen began receiving even more puzzling communications. This time, though, it was in the form of strange and threatening phone calls– in which the caller would demand ransom money in exchange for her daughter.

“If we don’t get the money, your daughter will be sent to you in pieces,” the caller once said.

These bizarre calls ultimately went on for two years. Thankfully, though, Karen did record each conversation– reporting them to the police and allowing investigators to make transcripts.

Authorities were also able to triangulate the location of the caller to a payphone located in Kansas City. Despite this break in the case, though, the caller was never able to be identified, and Jody’s case was ultimately reclassified as a probable homicide.