Missing at 12

0:00 Speaker 1: On a humid summer morning in Tallahassee, Florida, a frantic

0:04 Speaker 1: father called nine one one. His twelve year old daughter

0:08 Speaker 1: was gone. No note, no warning, no explanation, just an

0:12 Speaker 1: empty bedroom and a terrified parent desperately asking police for help. First,

0:18 Speaker 1: it looked like another runaway case, but over the next

0:21 Speaker 1: two years, investigators would uncover a truth far darker than

0:24 Speaker 1: anyone imagined, a truth that had been hiding in plain

0:28 Speaker 1: sight from the very beginning. In early June twenty twenty three,

0:32 Speaker 1: life seemed normal at an apartment complex on Continental Court.

0:36 Speaker 1: Twelve year old Lori Page lived there with her father,

0:40 Speaker 1: Andrew Way to neighbors, they appeared like any other family.

0:44 Speaker 1: Nothing seemed unusual. No one heard screams, no one saw

0:48 Speaker 1: a struggle. Then suddenly, Laurie vanished. Andrew called police. When

0:53 Speaker 1: officers arrived, they found a worried father standing outside his apartment,

0:58 Speaker 1: trying to explain what it had happened. He told them

1:01 Speaker 1: he had gone to work the previous night. When he

1:04 Speaker 1: returned home, his daughter was gone. The questions came quickly,

1:08 Speaker 1: What was she wearing? Who were her friends? Did she

1:11 Speaker 1: have anywhere she liked to go? Andrew struggled to answer.

1:15 Speaker 1: He explained that Laurie had run away before. Once she

1:19 Speaker 1: had been found at abandoned apartments. Another time she had

1:23 Speaker 1: stayed with a family friend. Because of that history, investigators

1:27 Speaker 1: initially believed they might be dealing with another runaway situation. Still,

1:31 Speaker 1: they couldn't take any chances. The search began immediately. Officers

1:37 Speaker 1: knocked on doors throughout the neighborhood. Residents check security cameras.

1:42 Speaker 1: Neighbors were questioned, Flyers were distributed. Police searched nearby streets,

1:48 Speaker 1: wooded areas, parks, and abandoned buildings. Yet nothing surfaced. No

1:53 Speaker 1: camera captured Laurie leaving. No witness saw her walking away.

1:58 Speaker 1: No one knew where she had gone. As hours turned

2:01 Speaker 1: into days, concern began to grow. A child who runs

2:05 Speaker 1: away usually leaves behind clues. Laurie hadn't left any. Investigators

2:10 Speaker 1: soon learned something else. Several registered sex offenders lived in

2:15 Speaker 1: the area. The possibility was alarming. Detectives began visiting homes

2:20 Speaker 1: and interviewing anyone who might have had contact with Laurie.

2:23 Speaker 1: Every lead was examined, Every possibility was explored, but one

2:28 Speaker 1: by one, the suspects were eliminated. No evidence connected any

2:33 Speaker 1: of them to her disappearance. The investigation stalled, and Laurie

2:37 Speaker 1: remained missing. To understand where she might have gone, detectives

2:42 Speaker 1: started learning more about who she was. Friends and family

2:46 Speaker 1: described her as intelligent but complicated. She struggled with anxiety.

2:51 Speaker 1: She often sought attention. Some people claimed she occasionally exaggerated

2:56 Speaker 1: stories or created drama to gain sympathy. Those details reinforced

3:00 Speaker 1: the runaway theory. Maybe she had left voluntarily, maybe she

3:04 Speaker 1: was staying with someone, Maybe she simply didn't want to

3:08 Speaker 1: come home. But as the weeks passed, that explanation became

3:12 Speaker 1: harder to believe. Investigators tracked down a woman who had

3:16 Speaker 1: sheltered Lourie during a previous disappearance. The woman confirmed that

3:20 Speaker 1: Laurie wasn't there. She also described the girl as highly

3:24 Speaker 1: manipulative for her age. According to her, Laurie knew how

3:28 Speaker 1: to attract attention and could hold grudges for a surprisingly

3:31 Speaker 1: long time. Still, none of that explained why she had

3:35 Speaker 1: vanished without a trace. Weeks became months, Months became a year,

3:40 Speaker 1: and then another. No sightings, no evidence, no answers. Desperate

3:46 Speaker 1: for a breakthrough, detectives widened the investigation. They interviewed teachers,

3:51 Speaker 1: school staff, and classmates. Rumors emerged. Some suggested Laurie had

3:56 Speaker 1: been communicating with older individuals online. Others believed she had

4:01 Speaker 1: become involved with someone much older than herself. But every

4:05 Speaker 1: lead collapsed under scrutiny, no evidence supported the claims. Each

4:10 Speaker 1: promising lead turned into another dead end. Then a witness

4:14 Speaker 1: came forward with what seemed like a major breakthrough. He

4:17 Speaker 1: claimed he had seen Laurie at a local skate park.

4:20 Speaker 1: According to his story, she exited one vehicle, retrieved a

4:24 Speaker 1: duffel bag, and climbed into another suv before driving away.

4:29 Speaker 1: For investigators, it sounded promising at last, a possible sighting,

4:34 Speaker 1: possible direction, possible explanation, But after extensive follow up, the

4:40 Speaker 1: witness's account could not be verified. No surveillance footage supported it,

4:45 Speaker 1: no vehicles were identified. The lead fell apart once again.

4:50 Speaker 1: Investigators found themselves back at square one, with nowhere else

4:54 Speaker 1: to turn. Detectives focused on the person closest to Laurie,

4:58 Speaker 1: her father, Andrew Way. At first, he had been treated

5:02 Speaker 1: solely as a grieving parent. He participated in interviews. He

5:07 Speaker 1: discussed Laurie's behavior. He talked about her relationship with her mother.

5:11 Speaker 1: He spoke about her anxiety and previous runaway incidents. Everything

5:16 Speaker 1: seemed consistent, but as investigators reviewed the timeline again and again,

5:21 Speaker 1: questions began to emerge. Small inconsistencies, details that didn't quite fit,

5:28 Speaker 1: statements that became difficult to reconcile. The more detectives looked,

5:32 Speaker 1: the more uncomfortable they became. Eventually, they shifted their approach.

5:37 Speaker 1: Instead of asking where Laurie might be, they began asking

5:41 Speaker 1: whether Andrew already knew. During interviews, detectives carefully questioned him,

5:47 Speaker 1: did he know where Laurie was? Had anything happened inside

5:50 Speaker 1: the home? Was there any reason she would have left?

5:53 Speaker 1: Andrew denied everything, repeatedly, calmly, firmly. He insisted he had

6:00 Speaker 1: nothing to do with her disappearance. He maintained that he

6:03 Speaker 1: was simply a father searching for his daughter. But investigators

6:07 Speaker 1: continued digging cell phone records, digital evidence, witness statements, timelines.

6:14 Speaker 1: Every piece of information was re examined, and slowly, the

6:18 Speaker 1: runaway theory began to collapse. The shocking reality that detectives

6:23 Speaker 1: would eventually uncover transformed the entire case. What had started

6:28 Speaker 1: as a missing child investigation became a homicide investigation. The

6:32 Speaker 1: person who had reported Lori missing, the person who stood

6:36 Speaker 1: beside detectives, the person who pleaded for answers, had allegedly

6:41 Speaker 1: known the truth all along, and according to investigators, that

6:45 Speaker 1: truth had been hidden from the very first day. For

6:48 Speaker 1: two years, police searched for a missing girl for two years.

6:52 Speaker 1: Family members hoped she would come home. For two years,

6:56 Speaker 1: detectives followed one lead after another, only to discover that the

7:00 Speaker 1: answers they were looking for may have been sitting directly

7:03 Speaker 1: across from them the entire time. The disappearance of Lori

7:06 Speaker 1: Page would become one of the most disturbing cases in

7:09 Speaker 1: Tallahassee a reminder that sometimes the greatest mystery isn't where

7:13 Speaker 1: someone went, it's whether the person searching for them is

7:16 Speaker 1: actually telling the truth.