Hello listeners, I'm your host Amara and this is Black Girl God, a true crime podcast.

On this episode of Black Girl Gone, we tell the story of 31-year-old Connie Francis Leonard,

who disappeared from Dayton, Ohio in November 1995. On the day Connie was last seen,

she told her mom she was going around the corner to the store. However, Connie never returned,

and no one in her family ever saw her again. Connie had four children when she disappeared,

and they do not believe that she would have abandoned them. Almost three decades after she was

last seen, her children, who are now adults, hope that heightened attention to her story will provide

them with the answers that they have been seeking. This is Connie's story.

Whenever a family member reaches out to me, I try my best to cover the case. The fact that they

reach out to me is one of the most humbling things that happens to me as the creator and host of

this show. Connie's story was brought to me by her daughter Angelic Leonard, and as we celebrated

Mother's Day this weekend, I can't help but think about people like Angelic and her siblings,

who have spent their lives wondering what happened to their mom. Mother's Day can be hard

for many people. It's easy for those of us who are fortunate to have healthy relationships with

our mothers to forget that not everyone has that opportunity. Some people never knew their

mothers or their mothers have passed on. Some people have toxic relationships with their mothers.

There are also those who have lost their mothers to violence or whose mothers have gone missing.

My heart goes out to everyone who has experienced that loss, whether it be physical or emotional,

and those who may find Mother's Day to be triggering. 27 years have passed without Connie's

children knowing what happened to their mother. She disappeared when her children were young. Her

oldest child was 13. The youngest children, including Angelic, have very few memories of their

mother, but it has not stopped them from trying to find her. Sadly, they have been unable to find

...