Whitney Wilken
The Vanished Podcast
Wondery
4.5 • 15K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Whitney Wilken had always been known as a free spirit to those who loved her. She grew up in South Dakota but later moved west to Olympia, Washington. Life in Olympia wasn’t always easy for Whitney, and the distance made it hard for her family to know what was going on in her day-to-day life. Still, they stayed connected, and her family could always count on hearing from her.
Then, in October of 2019, the calls from Whitney stopped. Her family reached out to friends in Olympia who went to look for her, but it was as if Whitney had vanished without a trace. No one seemed to know where she had gone or why. When Whitney was reported missing to the Olympia Police Department, their search yielded few answers, and the questions only grew heavier with time. In the years that followed, new information surfaced that raised even more concern. Other women in the same area, with circumstances similar to Whitney’s, had been victimized, leading investigators to consider whether her disappearance might be connected to something much darker.
Six years later, Whitney’s loved ones are still waiting for answers. They hope that by sharing her story, someone out there might remember seeing or hearing something that could finally bring them closer to finding her.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Whitney Wilken, please contact the Olympia Police Department. For urgent or time-sensitive tips, call 911 or the non-emergency line at (360) 704-2740. For other information, please call (360) 753-8300 and ask for the Detective Sergeant handling Whitney’s case.
If you have a missing loved one that you would like to have featured on the show, please fill out our case submission form.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | These are the hardest cases for us to investigate and solve. |
| 0:13.2 | Whitney, I would say, is one of the most vulnerable in our community. |
| 0:18.3 | We see folks like Whitney who are preyed on on multiple levels, and those are the |
| 0:24.7 | hardest to follow because there's not a lot of people that have verifiable information to help us |
| 0:28.8 | create investigative strategies with her. |
| 0:31.6 | And most missing person investigations, the families and the friends are usually the best investigators. |
| 0:37.0 | They know the people better than I ever can or will, and sometimes they can get places that I can't. |
| 0:43.1 | I wouldn't have thought that Whitney would just disappear. |
| 0:47.1 | You try as hard as you can. I don't know. My heart breaks for Angie. |
| 0:51.6 | And being my daughter's friend, the same age and everything, of course, I have to try as hard as I would if it were my daughter. |
| 0:58.2 | It could have been anybody's child. Some people don't want to think that, but combinations of circumstances, you don't know. |
| 1:06.5 | 31-year-old Whitney Wilkin had always been known as a free spirit to those who loved her. |
| 1:11.9 | She grew up in South Dakota, surrounded by wide-open spaces. |
| 1:16.0 | But eventually, she felt drawn out west to Washington State, |
| 1:19.7 | where she hoped to start a new chapter in her life. |
| 1:22.8 | In Olympia, life wasn't always easy for Whitney, |
| 1:25.7 | and the distance made it hard for her family to truly know |
| 1:28.5 | how she was doing. Still, they stayed connected. No matter what was happening, Whitney always made time to call |
| 1:35.3 | home. Then, in October of 2019, the calls from Whitney stopped. Her family reached out to friends in |
| 1:42.4 | Olympia, who went to look for her, but it was as if |
| 1:45.4 | Whitney had vanished off of the face of the earth. No one seemed to know where she had gone or why. |
| 1:50.9 | When they reported Whitney missing to the Olympia Police Department, their search yielded few answers, |
... |
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