Original subtitles

- 40% of the missing population

are people of color, primarily African Americans.

- It was a surreal moment, and I kept saying,

"Okay, what do you mean that she's missing?"

He said, "I cannot find her."

- She's gone. - She wasn't in her room.

I checked the whole building. She wasn't there.

I'm sorry. I'm getting sick just talking about this.

- You can see a white Subaru

- You can see a white Subaru come into frame very slowly.

come into frame very slowly.

- They assume that they can more easily and readily access

a child of color versus a white child.

- She left her iPad. It was some bad stuff.

- That could be your daughter,

and you would want someone to care.

- We were told that an AMBER alert

was not possible. - They were unwilling to

broadcast anything on their news stations.

- I just can't believe that this is even happening.

- We can't do this work alone.

The media needs to get involved.

Law enforcement. - The police didn't come

to my house until several days after I reported her missing.

- We had been warned that the possibility of her

coming home alive had been diminished quite a bit.

- He goes, "Well, she's not a child. She's a teenager."

I said, "Well, she's my child."

- We need to provide exposure to these cases.

- The phone call said "We, um, we found her."

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I'm Garcelle Beauvais, star and executive producer

of the Lifetime film "Black Girl Missing."

As a mom, the topic of missing children of color

is very close to my heart,

and I believe this epidemic deserves more attention.

You're about to see a documentary

that chronicles two terrifying

real-life cases of missing teens,

each with a different outcome.

♪ ♪

Can you tell me a little bit more

about the person missing in Florida?

- The Black and Missing Foundation

is at the forefront of advocating for change

when it comes to the search

for missing people of color.

- We received a call from a mother in Georgia

who was desperately searching for her missing daughter,

14-year-old Kyla Flagg.

- We learned about Joniah Walker

from one of our vigilant followers.

They alerted us to her case.

Both of these teenage girls were classified as runaways.

They're not runaways. They're missing,

and we need to find them.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ - Kyla is a smart young lady.

- Kyla is a smart young lady.

She loves gardening, she's in orchestra,

and she's very observant.

She's kind of an introvert somewhat,

but once you get to know her,

she will definitely open up to you.

She's a very sweet, a very good friend to others,

and I just love her personality.

I love her smile.

- She's my youngest. She is my baby.

Um, she loves to dance. She loves to sing.

Um, she loves music, so um, we have a lot in common.

If I had to sum it up, she's a daddy's girl,

full of life, vibrant, and a jewel.

- I call her my geeky child.

So she's always loved to read books.

She loves to write,

and a lot of her words would be beyond her years.

♪ ♪

- The day that Kyla went missing

was a pretty typical Saturday.

I picked Kyla up, and we went to IHOP for breakfast.

And then, from there, we went home

for what would just be a normal Saturday.

- In 2021, Stacy and Wayne Flagg

are divorced and share custody of daughter Kyla.

- I went upstairs, um, after spending some time

with Kyla downstairs and started watching TV.

And Kyla went to her room to do what teenage girls do:

And Kyla went to her room to do what teenage girls do: playing games, things like that.

playing games, things like that.

- Not only does Kyla like gaming,

but with the gaming, she was also able

to, uh, chat with others.

- Kyla has been in her room at her father's house

for about an hour when she goes upstairs.

for about an hour when she goes upstairs. - She stuck her head into my room,

- She stuck her head into my room,

and I noticed that she had changed her hair.

and I noticed that she had changed her hair. And she asked me, she was like,

And she asked me, she was like,

"Do you like my hair?"

And, um, anybody who saw pictures of her,

they know that two big puffs

was her signature style at the time,

so absolutely. It's beautiful.

So she gave me the thumbs-up

and, you know, walked out of the room,

and, you know, walked out of the room, went back to her room,

went back to her room,

and I dozed off for about maybe 30 to 45 minutes.

She came back to the room, stuck her head in,

and she said, "I love you." And I said, "I love you too,"

and she said, "I love you." And I said, "I love you too," didn't think anything of it.

didn't think anything of it.

didn't think anything of it. Maybe about an hour or so later,

Maybe about an hour or so later,

it was starting to get late,

so I was thinking about dinner.

And I couldn't find her in her room,

so, um, I searched, um, both of our guest rooms,

downstairs, the backyard, and couldn't find her.

So then I thought maybe she was playing a game with me,

so checked the closets, checked under beds,

checked her brother's room, um, could not find her.

- Kyla does not have a cell phone.

- Kyla does not have a cell phone. - I decided to go outside.

- I decided to go outside.

I thought that maybe she had taken a walk,

as we live in a pretty safe neighborhood

and it's not uncommon for her to go on walks.

When I didn't see her on our immediate block,

I, um, got into my car

and went driving around the neighborhood.

[sighs]

When I couldn't find her, um, I called DeKalb County

and told them that my daughter was missing.

And then I called Stacy immediately,

and I said, um, "Stacy, uh, I can't find Kyla."

- I kept saying, "Okay, what--

- I kept saying, "Okay, what-- "what are you talking about?

"what are you talking about?

What do you mean that she's missing?"

And he said, "I cannot find her."

And he said, "I cannot find her." - Wayne and Stacy immediately

- Wayne and Stacy immediately

start looking for clues as to what happened.

- My first thought was to see

if she went out the front door.

So we did have a Ring camera on the front of the house,

and so, when I went through the Ring footage,

um, you can see a white Subaru.

You see it come into frame very slowly,

and it kind of stops right on the edge of the frame.

and it kind of stops right on the edge of the frame. And then it kind of, um, speeds up

And then it kind of, um, speeds up

and takes off, and it goes off frame.

So we could not see Kyla get into the vehicle,

and we could never see the license plates.

- Wayne will later share the video

with DeKalb County authorities.

- We started in her room, of course,

looking for her things and through her things.

Um, immediately, we tried to get into the laptop.

Because I purchased it and had set up the passwords on it,

Because I purchased it and had set up the passwords on it, I knew how to get into it,

I knew how to get into it,

but when I went to use my password, it did not work.

And then, when I tried to reset the password,

the reset for the password was asking

for 24-bit encryption from Microsoft,

which was something that I had not placed on the laptop,

didn't know anything about.

It was a very tedious process for us

because we were still trying to wrap our mind

because we were still trying to wrap our mind around the fact that she was gone.

around the fact that she was gone.

- Nothing prepares you for that.

- Nothing prepares you for that. It's kind of like death.

It's kind of like death.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ - Her smile is so pretty.

- Her smile is so pretty.

She has a very beautiful smile.

Um, I just love her softness. her quiet,

and, you know,

just very, like, mature.

just very, like, mature. - In a haunting coincidence,

- In a haunting coincidence,

Joniah Alexis Walker is named after a missing child

in the family's hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

- The middle name, Alexis--

it reminded me of a little girl

that went missing in May some years ago.

That family never seen that little girl again,

and so I know it hurt a lot of people here.

We all wanna know what happened to Alexis Patterson.

And so yeah.

That was the connection with that name.

She was very clingy to me.

And so I would say stuff like,

"Girl, you must've been kidnapped in your past life."

I used to always say that to her,

when she was very small, like,

"'Cause you act like you never gonna see me again,"

and that used to freak me out that she would act like that.

When she was real--like 4 years old...

'cause I'm diabetic, right?

And so she goes, "Mom, I'm gonna make you a salad."

She'll run in the kitchen, and she'll make me a salad.

But then she'll come back and it was, like, cabbage.

And I would eat it 'cause she made it for me.

She was so--she done chopped up a whole cabbage,

She was so--she done chopped up a whole cabbage, carrots, and all this stuff.

carrots, and all this stuff.

And I'm telling you, she was so small.

And she goes, "I hope it makes you feel better."

- Joniah is a bright and outgoing child

until a traumatic event takes place at the age of 11

that affects her profoundly into her teen years.

- Joniah, she was dealing with PTSD, anxiety,

and depression.

She was seeing a therapist every week for about...

two years at this point.

And it all stemmed from

a sexual assault that happened to her.

- The assault is from an adult in her life.

- She was dealing with issues, and I wasn't happy about it.

And I knew it was something off.

♪ ♪

- [sighs]

Okay, so I remember that day, June 23rd.

It was the summertime,

so of course, she's sleeping in late.

I had to be at work at 8:00, so I went in her room--

it was, like, 7:40--to tell her I love her and stuff.

And I tried to hug her, and she kind of like...

And I thought that was kind of weird.

And I was like, "Okay, girl, have a good day."

And I was like, "Okay, girl, have a good day." You know, "I love you."

You know, "I love you."

She called me on the phone. I was at work.

And she goes, "Mom, why didn't you give me

my package that came in the mail yesterday?"

And I was like, "What package? I didn't get a package."

And she was like, "Oh,"

and that was the last conversation I had with her.

That day, she was supposed to go with her father

That day, she was supposed to go with her father to get her work permit

to get her work permit

to continue working at the Pizza Shuttle.

- But Joniah's father has been unable to get a hold

of his daughter, so he calls Tanesha,

who also reaches out to her.

- Her phone went to the voicemail, so I'm like,

"Okay, that's not normal."

And I left work.

I got home a little bit after 4:00,

and she wasn't in her room. I check the whole building

'cause I know sometimes she'll go downstairs

into the aerobics room and she'll work out.

She wasn't there.

I'm sorry. I'm getting sick just talking about this.

Um...

her dog was there. Her bike was there.

So, like, where could she be?

So I just thought somebody stole her.

- Tanesha contacts her other children,

Joniah's friends,

even the pizza place where she works.

No one has seen her.

- I immediately knew something was wrong.

[dramatic music]

- 14-year-old Kyla Flagg has vanished

from her father's home in Snellville, Georgia.

She's been missing for approximately three hours.

- That night, we put together the fliers.

The detective that was on call did not respond to us

immediately, and so we didn't have

any other contact information to list.

So we listed our contact information.

- Later on that evening, reality started to kick in.

Didn't care about my job or anything.

My sole purpose at that moment was to find my daughter.

- The next day, we had family and friends,

I had colleagues and employees all at my house,

collecting fliers.

- They agreed to pass out fliers.

However, a lot of the businesses

would not allow us to post them.

A lot of times, they believe that girls are just runaways,

especially our Black and brown girls.

- I inquired if, you know, there could be an AMBER alert

because our daughter was missing.

- But under current national AMBER alert guidelines,

Kyla's disappearance doesn't meet

the necessary criteria.

- We were told that because it appeared

that she had walked away

and no one had forcefully entered

into my residence and taken her,

that, you know, an AMBER alert was not possible.

- When a child is classified as a runaway,

one, they don't get the AMBER alert.

They don't get any media coverage.

And law enforcement does not add the resources needed.

And law enforcement does not add the resources needed. - Due to COVID and the policies

- Due to COVID and the policies

that were put in place, we were unable to go

to the police department, so a lot of the communication

was done either over the phone or via email.

The only thing that played in my head was

her last facial expression,

just the look on her face as her dad drove off.

That was my last image.

- Wayne believes answers may lie

within Kyla's conspicuously encrypted laptop.

- We knew that if we could get into the laptop,

that it would give us maybe some additional information

that we needed to try to find her.

My best friend had a colleague whose husband works in IT,

My best friend had a colleague whose husband works in IT, and he asked for the laptop

and he asked for the laptop

to see if he could break the code.

He spent about a day with it,

and he gave it back to us immediately

and said that the encryption on the laptop

was something that he had never seen for a child.

He suggested that the person

who placed it on there was not Kyla.

- It had to be someone that was familiar with the tech world.

- How can someone get into your home

- How can someone get into your home without coming through the front doors?

without coming through the front doors?

Through your computer, through your devices,

and any app that has a chat feature,

you know, someone could reach our kids.

- It wasn't really until later that week,

the detective really started to put things in place

as far as looking for my daughter.

The weird thing was, not once did they ask for any computer.

The weird thing was, not once did they ask for any computer. - We reached out

- We reached out

to the DeKalb County Police for comment,

and they stated that they actively investigated the case

with all available resources.

Kyla has been missing for ten days.

Frustrated with DeKalb County's progress,

Wayne and Stacy hire a private investigator.

- The PI that we hired sent out the laptop

to one of the best forensic IT specialists in the country,

in Boston, and she was unable to break the encryption.

- With the mystery only deepening,

tips begin to pour in.

We were receiving all kinds of information.

We had psychics calling us, telling us that she was dead.

We had people demanding ransoms.

We had sightings of her in New Mexico

and then in Florida and then, you know, in South Carolina

and Alabama, so it was hard to stay focused.

But we were relentless.

- The private investigator advises Wayne and Stacy

that Kyla may be a victim of human trafficking.

- I just remember saying,

you know, that couldn't be possible.

- There was research conducted recently by the Urban Institute

where they interviewed traffickers.

And the traffickers admitted to targeting Black girls and women

because, they said, if they go after a white woman,

they will get more jail time

than they would targeting a Black girl or woman.

And they knew they wouldn't be looked for

if a missing persons report was filed.

- When we realized that it could possibly be

a trafficking situation,

we started to go to different run-down hotels.

We went to an apartment building

because someone stated that they saw her there,

walking with someone.

We put fliers on doors,

walked the complex for two days.

One night, her dad sat outside the gate of the complex

'til about 3:00 in the morning to make sure

he didn't see anyone walking that looked like her.

Because our daughter did not have a phone,

Because our daughter did not have a phone, we were unable to locate her.

we were unable to locate her.

- It's becoming more and more evident to Stacy and Wayne

that they are essentially on their own

in the hunt to find their daughter.

- We did reach out to some of the local news stations.

They were unwilling to broadcast anything.

We only had two news channels

to put it on their Facebook page.

to put it on their Facebook page. - If you take a look at the media,

- If you take a look at the media,

who is the decision maker? Like, what is the policy?

How do you determine which case gets coverage?

And who is determining that? - The 14 year old...

We were able to go live ourselves on Facebook.

We are asking that you please share our story

to help bring our baby girl home.

Natalie Wilson from Black and Missing Foundation

was able to set up an interview with us

was able to set up an interview with us with the Black News Channel.

with the Black News Channel.

That was a big relief to get some type of news coverage

to get our story out there.

- So weeks had passed, and we still hadn't received

- So weeks had passed, and we still hadn't received any clues or updates.

any clues or updates.

At this point, it was starting to transition

from a--you know, a rescue to maybe a recovery.

We had been warned that, you know, at this point,

the possibility of her coming home alive

had been diminished quite a bit.

And so our position was that

we just wanted to bring our baby home.

- Still, Wayne and Stacy remain relentless

in the search efforts, regardless of the outcome.

- One evening, I left work and did my normal search.

I typically would leave and try to search

I typically would leave and try to search until the Sun started to go down.

until the Sun started to go down.

And then, um, I went to Stacy's house,

and she made the statement to me.

She said, "Wayne, we got to figure this out.

There's something that we have to be missing."

So we sit down, and we started going

through another laptop that I had

that Kyla used to use before she got her own.

- This older laptop reveals an email account

that Kyla and Wayne had shared in the past.

- Her and her dad had an email address

that they shared once before.

So I thought maybe she was using that email address

to communicate with others or maybe with someone.

♪ ♪

We just start looking through emails.

I, myself, start looking through deleted emails.

And there was an email that was deleted,

and it stated, "Do you want to continue

and it stated, "Do you want to continue to set up your iPhone?"

to set up your iPhone?"

My daughter did not have an iPhone,

My daughter did not have an iPhone, so that told me then that

so that told me then that

someone had purchased the iPhone for her.

We provided the IP address to the detectives

in DeKalb County.

in DeKalb County. - We didn't fully know

- We didn't fully know

that it was the smoking gun, if you would.

We just knew that we were getting closer

and that we had made more progress

in that, you know, one to two hours

than we had made in several weeks.

- Law enforcement authorities immediately do a search

on the phone's IP address.

- The detectives did do an IP search,

which led back to a home in Lubbock, Texas.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- 15-year-old Joniah Walker has vanished

from her mother's home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

She's been missing for approximately three hours.

- The police--the Milwaukee Police Department,

um, when I initially went to the...

the district to file the report,

the district to file the report, I said, "My child is missing."

I said, "My child is missing."

He goes, "Well, how old is your child?"

He goes, "Well, how old is your child?" I said, "She's 15."

I said, "She's 15."

And he goes, "Well, she's not a child, she's a teenager.

Like that. I said, "Well, she's my child."

You know, I told him just like that.

"She's my child, and I don't know where she is.

She's missing." He's like,

"Well, she's a teenager, and that's what teenagers do."

I was like, "Not my daughter."

I was like, "Listen, she dealing with a lot right now."

I didn't know if she went to hurt herself at that point.

I didn't know, and...

he just was not being a nice person.

So we left.

- I think, um,

Black girls are classified as runaways because it puts

the responsibility on the child and it alleviates

law enforcement from taking any responsibility.

law enforcement from taking any responsibility. These young people are not capable

These young people are not capable

of making adult decisions in children's bodies.

- Tanesha and Joniah's father meet

with the apartment manager to ask

with the apartment manager to ask to see security camera footage.

to see security camera footage.

Sure enough, it captures Joniah leaving.

- We saw her. She left out the building.

- We saw her. She left out the building. It was, like, 2:35,

It was, like, 2:35,

and she changed her clothes, like, she had on boy stuff.

It was just alarming. I'm like...

And then we seen the book bag.

- The large backpack had arrived in an Amazon package

- The large backpack had arrived in an Amazon package prior to Joniah vanishing.

prior to Joniah vanishing.

- And that's when we knew. We was like, "She ran away."

- We need to eliminate the classification "runaway."

These are children, and really, there's no sense of urgency

in finding our missing when they're labeled as a runaway.

- Okay, so here is the side door

that Joniah came out of our building

when she left home.

And it was caught here on this camera right here.

So my neighbor across the street,

he was the last person to see my daughter, Joniah,

when she was running down the street right here

when she was running down the street right here after she came out the house.

after she came out the house.

She headed south here, going down Buffum,

She headed south here, going down Buffum, and she went towards Reservoir,

and she went towards Reservoir,

and she made a right on Reservoir down the street.

- Knowing that Joniah had a cell phone

she wasn't answering, the couple returned

to the police station in hopes of having the phone tracked.

- He said, "You got to have

a warrant to do something like that."

And then her dad explained to him, like,

"My baby is missing, and I'm telling you,"

he said, "I'm the owner of the phone,

"and I'm giving you permission to talk to the people

"at the phone company so they can give you the information

that we need to try to track her."

He was asking to ping her phone.

They was like, "It don't work like that"

and you know, but he finally, like, did it.

- Police are able to determine Joniah's last phone call.

It is to her therapist.

Then the phone is switched off.

- The first 24 hours,

I was in between talking to the cops,

actually going out searching for her on the street,

calling people,

going over video footage with the apartment manager.

So there's so much going on in my head,

I'm getting chills just thinking about it

because I didn't know where she was.

I just thought that she literally ran away

and was, like, going in the woods

and was, like, going in the woods to live somewhere.

to live somewhere.

I wanted Joniah to be classified as critical missing

because of her history of PTSD, depression,

because of her history of PTSD, depression, past history of suicidal, you know, thoughts and stuff.

past history of suicidal, you know, thoughts and stuff.

past history of suicidal, you know, thoughts and stuff. Being critical meant

Being critical meant

they would've been searching for her,

they would've been searching for her, they would've put her

they would've put her

on the news right away,

that they was helping me look for her,

and they didn't.

- We reached out to the Milwaukee Police Department,

and they said they could not comment on an open case.

Tanesha turns to daughter Mackenzie for help

in examining Joniah's iPad for clues.

- She left her iPad there, but she deleted stuff.

Mackenzie was able to kind of recover

some of the materials that was deleted.

And it was, um--

it was some bad stuff.

it was some bad stuff. And... [sighs]

And... [sighs]

It was videos.

That's all I want...that's all I wanna say.

♪ ♪

- This frightening revelation changes everything.

- I believe that she definitely trusted

- I believe that she definitely trusted someone online,

someone online,

um, if not even a group of people, you know?

- But Tanesha feels her daughter's fate

is not a priority with the police.

- The police didn't come to my house

until several days after I reported her missing.

They never came in my house

to investigate her room.

It--they just sent one cop.

It--they just sent one cop. - Tanesha contacts the FBI.

- Tanesha contacts the FBI.

- Tanesha contacts the FBI. - When I contact them,

- When I contact them,

- When I contact them, they came very, very fast.

they came very, very fast.

- They confirm that Joniah's phone was turned off

within 24 hours of her disappearance,

making it impossible to trace her movements.

When recalling the FBI's investigation into the case,

something dawns on Tanesha

during the course of this interview.

- The FBI, when they came to my house the second time,

they was like, "You know, we went through her accounts,"

and they didn't get a purchase for a backpack.

They said, "Did you ever get the receipt for the book bag?"

And I was like, "No. I never got a receipt or anything."

So it just dawned on me that maybe someone did purchase

that backpack for her and sent it to her and...

Somebody bought the backpack for her.

That just dawned on me right now.

- This confirms to Tanesha that the backpack

was part of someone's plan to lure her away.

♪ ♪

More than two months go by with no word

on what may have happened to her daughter.

Then out of the blue, a surprise.

- Joniah, um, reached out to me via email.

- Joniah, um, reached out to me via email. The title was like, "Hey, Mom."

The title was like, "Hey, Mom."

And I was like, "Whoa," so I opened it up,

and it was her.

She was just telling me she missed me.

She goes, "The only reason why I reached out to you

"'cause I know you. You'll worry

yourself to death worried about me."

She said, "Mom, I'm okay."

You know, she just basically telling me she's safe.

Don't look for her.

- But are the emails really from Joniah,

or someone pretending to be her?

- She speaks about things that was real in our life.

Like, no one knew those things. I knew it was her.

So I immediately took that to the police

to tell them, like, "Hey, I know this is my daughter.

Can you track the device that this came from?"

Can you track the device that this came from?" No. They did not help me.

No. They did not help me.

- The email account is quickly deleted by the user,

ending Tanesha's only communication

ending Tanesha's only communication with her daughter.

with her daughter.

[dramatic music]

- Thanks to information her parents found

on an old computer,

Kyla Flagg's potential location

has been tracked

to an address in Lubbock, Texas.

to an address in Lubbock, Texas. - I was in shock.

- I was in shock.

- We kept saying, "Well, you know,

who does she know in Texas?"

How did she get in contact with someone in Texas?

So we had all of these questions

'cause we didn't know.

- More than five weeks after Kyla disappeared,

law enforcement authorities

converge on the Lubbock, Texas, address,

which belongs to a 33-year-old male named Robert Fyke.

But when they arrive, there is no sign of Fyke

or, more ominously, of Kyla Flagg.

Police visit Fyke's place of work, where they find him.

He denies knowing who Kyla is,

but they find the white Subaru

seen in the Flaggs' Ring camera on site.

Police will later learn the car was used

to pick up Kyla out of view of the camera.

Police ask to search Fyke's phone, and he consents.

On the phone, investigators find

pornographic images of Kyla.

♪ ♪

He is charged with sexual assault of a child,

interference with custody,

interference with custody, and a federal crime

and a federal crime

of possessing child pornography.

Kyla's fate remains unknown.

- So we were advised that the person had been arrested

that took my daughter in Texas.

However, my daughter was nowhere to be found.

Through my faith in God, I just knew that he was with her,

Through my faith in God, I just knew that he was with her, that she wasn't by herself.

that she wasn't by herself.

That's the thing that kept me going

was the fact that I had faith in God

and I, you know, trusted and believed

that we would find her.

- Under questioning, Fyke tells investigators

that Kyla was taken from Texas

to another state by yet another man.

- We were made aware that this person purchased a phone

for her and the detectives and the marshals, I believe,

in Texas were able to ping her phone

to see where she was located.

- The phone pings to an address

- The phone pings to an address in Danbury, Connecticut,

in Danbury, Connecticut,

1,870 miles from Lubbock, Texas.

48 hours pass before Wayne and Stacy hear back

from the law enforcement authorities.

- I received a phone call,

and the phone call said,

"Mr. Flagg, we, um, we found her."

♪ ♪

My heart sank because they didn't say initially

how they found her, so I thought that maybe

they found her body

they found her body versus finding her.

versus finding her.

And so then they said, "And she's alive."

And so then they said, "And she's alive." I couldn't really believe

I couldn't really believe

that, um, we were having this moment.

I gathered my things and called Stacy.

And I said, "Just got a call. They found her.

She's alive. We have to go to Connecticut."

- The detective stated that they did find

- The detective stated that they did find our daughter in Connecticut.

our daughter in Connecticut.

My question, you know, even though she had been found:

was she okay?

- I got another call, from Danbury Hospital,

- I got another call, from Danbury Hospital, and when I answered the phone,

and when I answered the phone,

the voice that I heard was Kyla.

♪ ♪

And she said,

"Hey, Dad."

And I lost it. I'm about to lose it.

And I lost it. I'm about to lose it. About to lose it now, you know?

About to lose it now, you know?

Because I think that that was the moment

Because I think that that was the moment that it really became real--

that it really became real--

was when I was able to hear her voice

and to know that, whatever had transpired,

she was okay.

- Police had found Kyla in the possession

of a 32-year-old Danbury resident named Wayne Marcell.

They also recover videotape evidence

that she had been sexually assaulted by him.

Incredibly, Kyla has fallen victim to not one,

but two different predators.

♪ ♪

- We flew into Connecticut later that evening,

and we headed to the hospital

to be reunited with our daughter.

- The Flaggs are warned that Kyla's abductors

- The Flaggs are warned that Kyla's abductors have altered her appearance

have altered her appearance

and that she might look quite different.

- Mentally, I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't.

[dramatic music]

- It's been more than a month

since 15-year-old Joniah Walker

since 15-year-old Joniah Walker has gone missing,

has gone missing,

and any clues to her whereabouts

have vanished.

But her mother refuses to believe

that she is out of options.

- I called 1-800-TheLost,

and they took it very seriously,

and they connected me with

the National Missing Exploited Children,

got me connected with a case manager.

He was awesome. He will communicate

with the police for me 'cause he saw,

like, right through the police,

like, right through the police, that they were not helping me,

that they were not helping me,

and he didn't understand why.

and he didn't understand why. - Not just police,

- Not just police,

but news media seems unwilling to cover the story

in a way that could be helpful to finding Joniah.

in a way that could be helpful to finding Joniah. - Often in the U.S.,

- Often in the U.S.,

we see an extraordinary amount of media coverage

when a white girl, in particular,

or a white woman goes missing.

There's 24-hour news coverage, updates, social media.

There's so many responses to that

and this sense of an all-in

in terms of finding out what happened to this person.

- You hear about Natalee Holloway,

- You hear about Natalee Holloway, you hear about Gabby Petito,

you hear about Gabby Petito,

but you don't hear about Black girls

and Black women.

And all the stories are important,

but so are Black girls and Black women.

- Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy, Caylee Anthony.

All of those names roll off my tongue.

No one out there can name one missing Black woman

that has garnered mainstream media.

- "Missing white woman syndrome" is a term

that has become more popularized

in the last couple of years

in the mainstream, but it's been talked about

in terms of what kind of attention

in terms of what kind of attention is given to those who go missing.

is given to those who go missing.

We often don't see the same kind

of mainstream coverage

despite Black women and girls constituting

a disproportionate number

of missing girls and women in the United States.

- Media coverage for missing persons cases

is crucial.

My station had already covered Joniah's disappearance,

and I believe we did a few stories on it,

but we didn't hear about her returning home.

So I just tried to think of a different way

to push the story forward.

- Kristin Pierce, from channel WISN, channel 12,

came out and interviewed me, and I didn't have a clue

that she was gonna connect my story

with a resource as big

as the Black and Missing Foundation.

And I was like, "Oh, wow, you know,

And I was like, "Oh, wow, you know, she's getting this big."

she's getting this big."

- The Black and Missing Foundation

- The Black and Missing Foundation wanted to talk to Tanesha to try to get

wanted to talk to Tanesha to try to get

Joniah on a national platform to have more people

learn about Joniah's case so that they can search for her

and find her and bring her back home.

- Social media can also be a powerful tool

in locating the missing,

in locating the missing, and Joniah's case is no exception.

and Joniah's case is no exception.

- For a 15-year-old young lady to be going missing,

and her parents and her family, loved ones, friends,

don't have a clue? That's not normal.

don't have a clue? That's not normal. She's untraceable.

She's untraceable.

That means somebody's been grooming her.

♪ ♪

- After nearly 40 days,

- After nearly 40 days, the Flaggs are reunited with Kyla.

the Flaggs are reunited with Kyla.

- The moment that she walked around that corner,

um...

it's a day that I'll never forget.

it's a day that I'll never forget. I remember exactly what she had on,

I remember exactly what she had on,

I remember exactly what she had on, exactly how she looked.

exactly how she looked.

- She did look different.

Her hair had been cut, and, um...

The fact that I was able to put my arms around her

and physically hug her again--

that was one of those surreal moments.

- She was crying. We were crying.

We embraced and began this journey to healing.

- On July 23, 2021, Wayne Marcell is charged

- On July 23, 2021, Wayne Marcell is charged with multiple state and federal

with multiple state and federal

with multiple state and federal child exploitation offenses.

child exploitation offenses.

So many questions remain.

What happened during the more than five weeks

that Kyla went missing?

How was she lured from Georgia to Texas?

How was she lured from Georgia to Texas? How did she then end up

How did she then end up

with another abductor in Connecticut?

We reached out to the Lubbock Police Department

for answers, but they were unable to comment on the case

due to pending litigation and appeals.

due to pending litigation and appeals. Robert Fyke pleaded guilty

Robert Fyke pleaded guilty

to possession of child pornography

and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Wayne Marcell pleaded guilty

Wayne Marcell pleaded guilty

to sexual exploitation of a child

and was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.

Nearly two years after the relentless efforts

of her parents delivered her from the hands

of an online predator, Kyla Flagg remains reticent

about discussing the details of her experience,

about discussing the details of her experience, even to her parents.

even to her parents.

- Even though Kyla hasn't been very vocal

about the things that had happened and her story,

I do know that she's grateful.

She knows that her dad and I love her unconditionally,

and being around her friends, you know,

having new friends, just those new experiences,

I do know that she's grateful. Um, yeah.

'Cause everybody doesn't get that chance.

She's definitely a fighter, and she's a survivor.

- She's made amazing progress.

- She's made amazing progress. She's on the honor roll.

She's on the honor roll.

This last semester, she finished with all A's.

She's second chair in the orchestra.

She's the president of the garden club.

All in all, her future's bright.

You know, we're already planning our college visits

for next year and really looking forward

to a life with all of this in the rearview mirror.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music]

- Before disappearing, 15-year-old Joniah Walker

stripped her bedroom walls of all décor,

leaving only a map of the United States

and a cryptic drawing of a cross and a dove

set against a sun and a storm.

- It just dawned on me, like,

she purposefully left that there

to let me know she could be anywhere

and just to--just to pray for her wherever she's at

or that God is with her

or, you know, something to that effect.

And--and it--oh...

- Joniah wasn't without close friends

like her bestie Ashanti,

making it all the more inexplicable

making it all the more inexplicable that no one has heard from her.

that no one has heard from her.

that no one has heard from her. - It's very difficult for Shanti.

- It's very difficult for Shanti.

She's, um, not handling it well

because we don't know anything.

She wouldn't just stay away like this.

She would contact us and say something.

- Every single day,

there are 500,000 active predators online,

according to the FBI,

attempting to lure these children

on these social media platforms and in these chat features.

on these social media platforms and in these chat features. And that's every single day.

And that's every single day.

- Of the more than 350,000 children

who went missing in 2021,

who went missing in 2021, more than 70,000 were Black girls.

more than 70,000 were Black girls.

- When we go missing,

it is a, like, a clear, demonstratable example

of how we don't matter.

- The criminal legal system when searching for white girls

is also about the erasure and invisibility

of Black girls and women as people who are missing.

- These families, many times, don't know what to do.

They're at their wits' end.

"I'm tired. I'm frustrated."

But we come alongside them

to let them know that we're in this fight with them.

to let them know that we're in this fight with them. We look like them.

We look like them.

We understand what they're going through.

It's an uphill battle, but they can't give up

because we're not giving up.

- Tanesha believes there may yet be clues

to her daughter's whereabouts

in the Amazon packaging that contained the backpack.

in the Amazon packaging that contained the backpack. - This stuff was just all in the box,

- This stuff was just all in the box,

so I just never threw the box away.

so I just never threw the box away. 'Cause, you know,

'Cause, you know,

every little clue will be helpful.

Like with the barcodes if they decided to--

I don't know how they investigate.

I don't know.

- Tanesha is desperate to know if her daughter is safe,

especially given the trauma

of sexual assault she suffered as a child.

- I hurted for her because of what happened to her.

I can tell that it sent her to a dark place.

Um, I'm sorry. She just...

she just wasn't happy.

She wasn't happy.

I can tell she was suffering on the inside,

but she didn't talk about it.

I was just worried about her

being happy for the moment, you know?

being happy for the moment, you know? Just getting day by day.

Just getting day by day.

- It's hard because

we don't know what's going on with her

and we miss her.

But I do know...

I just feel deep in my heart that she's, you know, alive.

I just feel deep in my heart that she's, you know, alive. We just--we can't get to her.

We just--we can't get to her.

We just want her back.

- She probably feeling like,

"I'ma just go talk to somebody that's not my family.

Maybe I don't feel protected by my family."

Maybe I don't feel protected by my family." You know what I'm saying?

You know what I'm saying?

And I don't understand why she would feel that way

And I don't understand why she would feel that way 'cause I would do whatever for her.

'cause I would do whatever for her.

You know what I'm saying? That's my little sister.

- It's been more than six months,

and Joniah's sisters refuse to give up on her.

- Today we're actually gonna hang up fliers

around Milwaukee,

the stores, corner stores, gas stations, banks,

the restaurants, McDonald's, Culvers.

We gonna hang up every flier that I got.

- If you hold up a flier and one says "missing,"

the other says "runaway,"

the messaging isn't created equal.

They're missing. They're children.

They're missing. They're children. And we need all the resources

And we need all the resources

available to find her.

- This is sad, but...

I don't know.

But I have hope I'm gonna see her.

♪ ♪

- As of the date of this production,

Joniah Walker remains missing.

♪ ♪