Alexis Patterson walked to school on May 3rd, 2002, but she never made it into the building.

Her school didn't notify her parents of the seven-year-old's absence, so no one knew she was missing until school let out that afternoon.

Her frantic parents, Ayanna and Laurent Bouchois, called Milwaukee

police in a search began. But despite being only seven years old, Alexis was treated as a runaway.

It would be over a week before police publicly said that they suspected foul play in her disappearance.

As the days turned into months, which turned into years, the hope of finding Alexis alive diminished for many. But not

for her mother. She believes that her daughter is out there somewhere, and in 2016, it seemed

that she was proven right when an Ohio man came to her

and said that he knew Alexis. In fact, he had been married to her. When a person goes missing,

there's a special kind of pain in the not knowing. I want to tell you the stories of those who

never came home. Today, I want to tell you the story of Alexis Patterson. I'm going to tell you the story of Alexis Patterson. I want to tell you the stories of those who never came home. Today, I want to tell you the story of Alexis Patterson.

I'm Conan Gallagher. And I'm Ethan Flick. And this is, and then they were gone. The

The Welcome back, everyone

Thank you for joining us, either right after part one, if you're on Patreon, or a week after we are in the future right now.

So this one is going to be a doozy.

Let me just buckle in here.

Yes, please do.

If you're just joining us, this is the second

part of a two-part episode on the 2002 disappearance of Milwaukee seven-year-old Alexis Patterson.

So if you haven't listened to Part 1, please go back and do so. In the first episode,

we covered the circumstances of her disappearance, possible leads, and the investigation.

In this episode, we're going to jump ahead to about 10 years after Alexis's disappearance

...