a woman left her work and vanished Without a Trace under strange circumstances police joined the search and quickly uncovered several chilling Clues suggesting something terrible might have happened to her but despite their efforts the investigation dragged on for 25 long years and only recently did an unexpected breakthrough finally reveal the shocking truth Kim langwell was born on December 24th 1965 in Houston Texas she grew up there with her parents and sister surrounded by friends and was known for her determination from a young age at the age of 18 Kim gave birth to her daughter Tiffany but shortly after Tiffany's father left them so Kim had to raise her daughter on her own she moved to a town called Bowmont hoping to start fresh and build a stable life for her self and Tiffany at first it wasn't easy Kim often had to juggle three jobs at once just to make ends meet but eventually she landed a good position at a local oil refinery which gave her more time to focus on her daughter at this job Kim also met a man named Ken the two started dating and before long they got engaged excited to plan their future together on July 9th 1999 34-year-old Kim had plans to spend the evening at a restaurant with Ken and her 15-year-old daughter Tiffany that day she was scheduled to finish her shift at work around 5:00 p. m. head home and then go to the restaurant at around 5:15 Kim called Tiffany to tell her about those plans she also mentioned that she had some things to do before heading home and might be a little late by 6:30 Ken arrived at her house but Kim for some reason still wasn't there he and Tiffany tried calling her but she didn't an answer which was quite unusual for her as the hours passed with no sign of Kim Kim became increasingly worried finally at around 10: p.
m. he decided to search for her he drove along the Route Kim would have taken from work to home checked local stores and stopped by other places she might have been but there was no trace of her anywhere kin kept searching until he spotted Kim's car parked outside a pharmacy but Kim herself was nowhere to be found he looked around the area hoping to find her but there was no sign of her anywhere near the pharmacy at first Ken thought maybe she changed her mind about dinner and gone somewhere else it crossed his mind that she could have left with a friend and decided to leave her car there even though it didn't make much sense to him still he convinced himself that she was probably fine and headed home the next morning kin drove back to the pharmacy and saw that Kim's car was still sitting in the parking lot she also hadn't come home overnight and hadn't contacted anyone at that point his worry turned into fear realizing something was seriously wrong kin decided to call the police after hearing all of this the officers immediately got to work their first step was to examine Kim's car there were no signs of a struggle or blood inside but they did find something unsettling her cell phone was left behind next they spoke with Kim's daughter Tiffany who had been the last person to speak with her Tiffany explained that after work her mom had planned to stop by the house of a man named Terry with whom she'd been in a relationship for 7 years even though they had broken up over six months earlier Terry still kept in touch with Kim from time to time that evening he asked her to help him with a repair project he needed someone to hold a few shelves while he mounted them to the wall Tiffany said she called Terry on the night her mom disappeared but he told her Kim had only stopped by for a few minutes and left when the police spoke with Kim's friends they learned that her relationship with Terry had been anything but smooth at first when Kim started dating him her friends thought he seemed like a decent guy but that impression didn't last long over time Terry's Behavior became more aggressive and controlling he constantly called Kim demanding to know where she was and who she was with he insisted that that she obey him and frequently caused arguments over the smallest things eventually Kim decided to end this relationship but breaking up with Terry wasn't easy he tried to stop her in every way possible sometimes he promised to change and other times he threatened to hurt her if she left him despite his efforts Kim finally managed to walk away after that Terry didn't do anything crazy to get her back but he continued to stay in contact with her Kim was afraid to completely cut him off worrying that if she did he might harm her or her daughter from conversations with Kim's friends police uncovered even darker details about her relationship with Terry shortly before their breakup he had become physically violent even going as far as choking her during an argument after that incident Kim became genuinely afraid that one day Terry might take things even further at one point she confided in her friends saying that if she ever disappeared they should start looking for her in Terry's backyard all this information combined with the fact that Kim had visited Terry shortly before she vanished made investigators take a hard look at him as a possible suspect but when they questioned Terry he denied any involvement in her disappearance he told police that Kim had only stopped by for a few minutes to help him Mount the shelves and left Terry also claimed that about 4 hours after Kim's visit he went to a local bar and spent the rest of the evening there this meant Terry had no alibi for the time Kim went missing and his motive seemed clear investigators got a warrant to search his home and combed through his property but they found nothing no trace of Kim no belongings no blood nothing to link Terry to her disappearance forensic experts also examined Kim's car but didn't find any clues either in the end police couldn't uncover any evidence linking Terry to to her disappearance or anything that could explain what happened to Kim but soon a new suspect entered the picture Kim's Friends Revealed that she had repeatedly complained about her boss Frank not long after she started working for him Frank began showing her unwanted attention he openly flirted with her despite being married as time went on Frank began writing her love letters trying to convince her to start a relationship with him in total he sent more than 100 letters the whole situation made Kim uneasy she was afraid Frank might fire her one day just because she didn't feel the same way in fact Kim had been so uneasy about the situation that she gave all of Frank's letters to her close friends asking to hold on to them in case anything ever happened to her the police reviewed Frank's letters and their content made it clear he was completely obsessed with Kim on top of that Kim had confided in her her friends that Frank would slowly drive past her house several times a day sometimes he'd even park across the street and just watch her what made the situation even more bizarre was that Ken Kim's current boyfriend also worked at the same company but that didn't seem to bother Frank at all given all this investigators began seriously considering Frank as a suspect Kim had vanished shortly after leaving work and Frank had more than one month motive for doing something like that first his obsession with her could have escalated to the point where he decided to abduct her second he may have feared that Kim might expose him either to their employer or to his wife either scenario could have caused him serious trouble giving him a strong reason to silence her the police decided to question Frank but he claimed he didn't have any strong feelings for Kim describing it as nothing more than a fleeting Crush that had long passed he also denied writing her any letters despite the fact that investigators had all of them in their possession Frank's Behavior struck the detectives as odd and they weren't quick to take him at his word he also claimed to have an alibi but that raised even more questions Frank provided a receipt from a store showing he'd been there at 6:56 p. m.
however in theory he still had enough time to abduct Kim before that later that evening Frank hosted a PO poker game with some friends who confirmed he was with them during that time but there was still a window of over an hour between the time Kim left work and when Frank's Alibi kicked in a period for which he had no explanation despite their efforts the police couldn't find any evidence linking Frank to Kim's disappearance so they shifted their focus to other potential leads investigators tried to locate surveillance footage from cameras along Kim's route from her home to Terry's house and then to the parking lot where her car was found but this effort yielded no results they also reviewed her phone records and discovered that her last call had been to her daughter with no further activity afterward the detectives then concentrated on search efforts scouring the city and its outskirts volunteers joined in and police made a public appeal asking anyone with information to come forward yet despite these efforts they made no no progress at the same time more reports about Terry's odd behavior started to surface just days after Kim's disappearance her sister decided to confront him at his home as both she and the rest of Kim's family strongly suspected him however Terry appeared not only indifferent to Kim's fate but went as far as openly mocking her relatives showing no sign of concern for the missing woman another interesting observation came from Terry's employ employees he owned a small business and his office was located on his property so his workers frequently came by one of them reported that on the day Kim disappeared he arrived at Terry's house around 5:50 p. m. and Kim's car was parked outside however he didn't see Kim herself considering that Kim had left work around 5:15 p.
m. this raised some serious questions Terry had claimed that she only stopped by for a few minutes but his employ account clearly contradicted that soon after the police received another lead multiple Witnesses reported seeing a tow truck owned by Terry near the parking lot where Kim's car was eventually found according to them the tow truck was there at around 6:45 p. m.
