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

On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of Anaya Blanchard, who was 19 years old when she vanished from Auburn, Alabama.

And it began as a normal night, one that should have ended with her home safely, quickly turned into a search that would stretch across counties, uncover

violence, and raise serious questions about how this could happen in the first place.

As investigators worked to piece together her final moments, the truth that began to emerge,

but not only reveal what was done to Anaya, but

also expose the failures that allowed it to happen.

This is Anaya's story.

It was late, the kind of late where everything feels quieter than it should. And inside a gas

station in Auburn, Alabama, a 19-year-old girl walked in, grabbed a snack, and headed back

out to her car. It should have been routine, just another stop on the way home.

But inside that same store, someone was watching her.

And within minutes, Anaya Blanchard would disappear.

Anaya was born on June 22, 2000, in North Port, Alabama.

And she grew up in nearby Homewood, a community that she loved and one that in many ways shaped who she become. Anaya was from a close-knit family.

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