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We can't just a whole big area around Zeneca, Illinois and you know around the river because he had friends in that area, you know around Jolly Ed.

We consulted psychics. My mother did, my grandmother did. We talked to all sorts of different people. Try to get some sort of, if in fact he killed her where he put her.

So we were looking for a body. We knew that. We were looking for certain things. Different psychics had told us that she was under a, you know, a silo and a property had a rut barn or something. I don't remember now.

But anyway, we looked around Illinois. My grandparents went down to Texas to try to reason with the people in McAllen. They weren't getting much cooperation. We weren't getting any cooperation from the law enforcement down there.

We couldn't convince the FBI that it was a crime had occurred across states. So they wouldn't get involved. The family refused to allow anybody on to the property to search the property.

So we just kept hitting dead ends wherever we went. But that was why it was Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. Now I think Oklahoma was only involved because they traveled through it.

But I don't remember now if there wasn't some sort of evidence that led us to think maybe Oklahoma wasn't more involved.

In December of 1988, 34-year-old Joan Bernal and her husband had plans to take their children to Texas to visit with her husband's family for the holidays.

Things didn't work out as planned and their children from previous relationships didn't end up going along for the trip.

According to Joan's husband, Gil, on the morning of December 10, 1988, he and Joan set out with their young daughter. They left their home in Jolia, Illinois, headed towards Texas.

Gil says that Joan asked to be let out of the car in Oklahoma after the couple had quarreled. Gil stated that he dropped her off near a McAllister Oklahoma bus stop and gave her some cash to get back to Illinois.

Joan Bernal has never been seen again. And this story is full of differing versions of what happened to Joan, whether or not she may still be alive and questions that surround her life and disappearance.

Amarissa and from Wondery, this is episode 251 of The Vanished, part one of Joan Bernal's story.

Since his death in 2009, the world has struggled with how Michael Jackson should be remembered as the King of Pop or as a monster.

I'm Leon Nefak. My new podcast Think Twice, Michael Jackson, offers a new perspective on the art and the artist. Follow Think Twice, Michael Jackson, on Audible or the Amazon Music App.

Joan's daughter, Serita, reached out to us earlier this year and requested that we cover her mom's story. When we spoke to her, she told us that the decision to speak publicly about her mom was a difficult one.

But that she wanted to see her mother's story told this is what she shared with us about coming forward.

I've kind of steered away from hearing her story, my story, our story. My husband said this morning, like when I reminded him I'm doing this, he's like, Serita, you better hope this doesn't start anything.

But listen, here's my problem, I have spent my 34 years always sticking up for my dad, defending him and his character and who he is and always being his voice.

Who is my mom's voice? Where is her story in this? She was a person too. That's the thing that I'm struggling with most now. Now that I'm older and I have kids in my own.

And I'm everything I ever wanted for them. I would hope that if something happened to me that someone would pick up from me, you know, that I have a voice.

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