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The Vanished Podcast

Aliayah Paige Lunsford

The Vanished Podcast

Wondery

True Crime, Society & Culture, Cold Case, Investigative, Find The Missing, Vanished, Missing Persons, Documentary, News, Disappeared, Exhibit C

4.515K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2016

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Aliayah Paige Lunsford was just 3 years old when she vanished from her home in Weston, West Virginia on September 24, 2011. She had been sick with flu like symptoms and when her mom, Lena, went to take her temperature, she realized that Aliayah was missing. Sadly, after five years, no trace of Aliayah has been found. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the vanished ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.

0:11.0

About 9.9.30, head back in to make her up. She was gone.

0:18.0

We have to have it. We have to have some type of closure. Those two people need to tell us what they did, where Alia is.

0:26.0

You know, there's so many rumors or so many theories of what could have happened, what did happen. I don't know.

0:33.0

I know that Alia had a very troubled life the last five weeks. I don't even know how she slipped through the loophole to even take the kids out of Joanne's house. I really don't.

0:48.0

Right now, there's no clues leading us anywhere. No clues. It's just like she's just disappeared.

0:56.0

Hello, and welcome to episode 56 of The Vanished. Three-year-old Alia Lunsford disappeared from her home in Weston, West Virginia on September 24, 2011.

1:08.0

Little Alia had been sick before she went missing, and her mother, Alia Lunsford, said that she checked up on her around 6.30 a.m. on the morning of the 24th.

1:17.0

But when she went back in to check up on her again around 9, Alia was gone. No trace of the three-year-old has ever been found.

1:24.0

This is Alia's story.

1:42.0

Well done. You've sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me Rob Briden on my podcast.

1:54.0

In this series of Briden and I talk to, among others, Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Charlotte Church, Steve Cougan and Dame Harriet Walter.

2:04.0

And that's just a few. We tend to chat for about 45 minutes to an hour never longer. It's terrific conversation,

2:11.0

reminiscent where appropriate and exchange of anecdotes. So do join me Rob Briden wherever you get your podcasts.

2:19.0

New episodes of Briden and are available early and ad free on Amazon Music or by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

2:29.0

At the time, Alia had been living with her mom Lena, her stepdad Ralph and her four siblings. But she had only been in her mother's custody for about five weeks.

2:45.0

Alia had been born when her mother was incarcerated and had been raised for almost her entire life by her grandmother Joanne.

2:52.0

Alia was reportedly sick with flu-like symptoms the night before she disappeared. Lena Lunsford, who was also eight and a half months pregnant with twins at the time, claimed to have seen Alia around 6.30 that morning.

3:04.0

This was around the time that Ralph Lunsford had left for work. He was picked up by a coworker, leaving Lena alone with the children.

3:11.0

Lena claimed that she went back to check up on Alia and to take her temperature at 9. But she was gone.

3:17.0

Instead of calling 911, Lena claims that she drove around for about two and a half hours before calling 911 at 11.30.

3:25.0

This is Lena's 911 call. You will hear that it's actually two separate calls. There are also some spaces in there where you can tell that some information has been redacted, including names of Alia's siblings.

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