Here on Stolen Lives, we discuss brutal and heartbreaking crimes against children.

Themes may include child murder, torture, and sexual domestic and child abuse.

I do try to my best to remain respectful for the babies in these stories

and leave out unnecessary details that honestly, none of us need to know to understand the frustration

of why and how this ever happened.

However, if you find any of these themes triggering this podcast may not be for you.

Listener discretion is advised.

This week's story are listener's suggestion.

Thank you to Jocelyn for bringing Stephanie's story to my attention.

In the United States, approximately 460,000 children are still considered missing in any given year.

What is a missing child?

The definition isn't clear. And this makes this

statistic uncertain. But even as a rough number, this is alarming. Stephanie is one of these children.

September 2024, New Sweden, Maine. A 13-year-old girl had a fight with her oldest sister over household chores,

resulting in the teen running into the woods, something she had done many times before,

but would always return after clearing her head. This time, Stephanie would not return.

Was she abducted by a predator who had groomed the girl via an online dating app?

The FBI have kept their cards close to their chests.

And eight months later, we are still asking, where is Stephanie?

This is Stephanie's story.

First tonight, law enforcement officials and volunteers are searching for a 14-year-old girl from New Sweden who's been

missing for months. Stephanie Damren's family reported her missing last September. She was last seen

...