When a girl goes missing from rural Missouri, hopes that she simply became lost during a walk are quickly extinguished.

Investigators pursue answers in the potential abduction of a vulnerable child in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

Music Thanks for listening to Last Seen Alive.

I'm your host, Leah, crime analyst by day and true crime storyteller by night.

And as always, I'm your co-host, Scott.

A quick heads up. This episode contains brief mention of sexual assault, as well as violence

against children. We won't go into any graphic detail, but still, please listen with care.

Bianca Piper was last seen alive on March 10, 2005.

She was 13 years old at the time and lived in Foley, Missouri,

a very small community just beyond the banks of the Mississippi River.

With the current population of just 161 people,

Foley is decidedly rural.

Most of the area is farmland, although there are wooded areas as well.

Bianca lived there with her mom's sisters and her mom's boyfriend. She was an eighth grader at the

local middle school and was known for her love of horses, as well as the color purple. She was also

very artistically gifted. However, school was particularly challenging for Bianca.

Although she was 13 in the 8th grade, she was said to have had the mental capacity of a much

younger child, a second grader, or 7 to 8 year old. Because of this, she was enrolled in special

education classes where the curriculum was tailored to her abilities rather

than to a number. On the day of her disappearance, Bianca got into an argument with her mom, Shannon.

The argument was overdoing the dishes, so nothing too serious, but Bianca sometimes struggled

with regulating her emotions. Now, the same can probably be said for most 13-year-olds, but in Bianca's case,

...