Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

And before we jump into today's case, I wanted to remind all of you about an amazing

organization that AudioChuck is supporting this year. It's the National Center for Missing

and Exploited Children. AudioChuck is doing a big sponsorship with them, but their work

is so impactful that we really want to encourage our Crime Junkies to support them in a big

way as well. So they can continue doing all that they do. So we have set a goal of raising

$100,000 by the end of this year. We are well on our way, but we still need you guys to

show up. You guys can donate at audiochuck.missingkids.org. The money goes directly to them. That

link is available in our show notes as well. Your donation goes towards their efforts to

help cases just like the one that I'm about to tell you about today. So go to audiochuck.missingkids.org

or visit our show notes to give this incredible organization some much-deserved support. So

with that, the story that I have for you today is about a 16-year-old girl who abruptly and

unexpectedly walked out of the front door of her high school and into the prairie town

that she called home, never to return. No one knows why she left, where she was going,

or who she might have been trying to see. But the answers to those questions have left

police, her family, and friends, and many online armchair detectives scratching their heads

ever since. This is the story of Michaela Bali.

It's just before 4pm on April 12, 2016, and Paula Bali is at work in Yorkton, Saskatchewan

Canada. It's a totally normal Tuesday, or at least it was a totally normal day, until

her mother Margaret shows up. Paula knows as soon as she sees her mom that something isn't

right. Margaret has never shown up at her office before, not one time. And she seems kind

of rattled, which leaves Paula with a really bad feeling immediately. Margaret tells

...