College can be a stressful time. I remember countless nights spent studying, sitting through class with little to no sleep, and struggling to get all my assignments completed before the due date. There were days when I needed a break and escape. All college students feel this way. In fact, I think we can all agree. Most adults feel this way. Sometimes we feel the world

resting on our shoulders and we need that break just to relax and to let our minds just cool down.

Ernest Jabalah said, free your mind, disentangle your mindset from what can set your mind from

your true purpose. Dare when you have to, enjoy when it's a

must, relax when there is a need to. The story I'm bringing you today started off as just that. A

relaxing break from the chaos of school. A trip to explore the West Coast quickly turned into questions

left unanswered and a grieving family. We like to

think that we're untouchable, that riding that train alone at night is fine, that women and men

disappearing only happened in movies, that it could never happen to us. We trick ourselves into saying,

I'll just call my mom, my boyfriend, whoever, until I get back to the hotel, Then I'll be safe. We let people know where we're going and when we'll be back. We keep in touch. We check in. We never think it will be us. But as today's story points out, it could be us. Think of all the trips you went on as a young adult. All the things you did that now, looking

back, you're shocked, nothing bad happened. As much as we plan and we plan, the unexpected

and the unimaginable still happen. Despite all the planning, all the details we put into place,

things can still be out of your control. As much as we want to say, not me, it will

never happen to me. How can we be sure? Our victim today, I'm sure, thought the same things,

but her well-planned out trip left her family heartbroken and left us wondering,

how? This is a story of Alyssa Lam. Welcome to coffee and cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold.

My name is Allison Williams.

And my name is Maggie Damron.

We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will

take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.

With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page,

Coffee and Cases Podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person

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