When a toddler vanishes from the parking lot of a popular Tennessee mall, she's the third child to disappear from the area within just weeks, fearing that she was abducted, local police launch an investigation that takes years' worth of twists and turns in this episode of Last Seen Alive. I'm your host Leah, crime analyst by day, and true crime storyteller by night.

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

A quick heads up. This episode is about the disappearance of a young child victim and contains discussion of child death as well as child neglect and brief mention of sexual assault. We won't go into any

graphic detail, but still, please listen with care. Lucy Meadows was last seen alive on July 25,

1996. She was three years old at the time and lived in Clarksville, Tennessee. Clarksville is a

medium-sized city in northern Tennessee near the

Kentucky border. Lucy lived with her mom, Yang Meadows, who was 43 years old on a small farm

on the outskirts of town. On the afternoon of July 25th, a Thursday, Yonge and Lucy made

the hour-long drive to the town of Goodletitzville to visit the Rivergate Mall, a popular

destination for residents of the region at the time. They found a parking space near the entrance

to the Castner-knot department store on the mall's western side. That was at about 5.30 p.m.

And within moments of parking, Yang was screaming for help. Mall security was summoned, and then, so were the Goodlitzville police.

Young explained to security and shortly thereafter to police what had happened.

She'd exited her vehicle and had unbuckled and helped her three-year-old daughter Lucy

out of the car, too.

After that, she'd turned her back on Lucy, walking around to the other side of the

vehicle and reaching into it for a package of handcrafts that she was going to try to sell at the

mall. When she'd turned back to her daughter, Lucy was gone. It had happened that fast in less than a

minute. So the speed at which this happens is really rather shocking.

It is.

Beyond just opportunistic.

Right. For someone to do that, you would think they had to have been lying and wait, waiting for some kind of an opportunity.

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