As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 209 - Missing 411 / Urban Disappearance Cases

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Today, on the 209th episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we have a special episode. Today we will cover 3 cases where people disappeared in the middle of nowhere, without a trace- 3 cases that fall under the Missing 411 umbrella. Today's episode was written by Tom K, Find his other works here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBVX81W7 If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your on supports it! I upload episodes every 3 days, so there are 2 days between new uploads. The podcast consists of new scary story collections, Glitch in the matrix collections, and also what I call the "Dark Dreams" collections (which are older stories, remastered and layered with rain sounds). If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube TimeStamps… Ad breaks after Story 1 Case 1 ➤ 2:36 Case 2 ➤ 12:48 Case 3 ➤ 21:24 ----- Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. None of my audio is AI Generated, I am a real person reading real stories into a real microphone. Note: The podcast nor the host endorses any advertisements played during the podcast, ads are not chosen by ATRD or Raven Adams, they are chosen automatically by the advertisement systems by the platforms that host the podcast. I do not endorse, support, or promote any opinions or statements made in any adverts played during the show. #ScaryStories #UnexplainedMysteries #Missing411 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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bar obliq concour. The reglements of the concourse can apply. There are missing persons cases. And then there are these cases. I'm not just talking about a case that's gone cold. I'm talking about the ones that are

fundamentally strange. The ones that stick in your mind because the details are so bizarre, so uncanny, that no simple explanation feels right. The kind of case that leaves you with a deep unsettling feeling that you're missing a key piece of the puzzle.

This is the territory that's become known as missing 411. It's a term used to describe a pattern of disappearances that share a cluster of baffling hallmark. Often they happen in or near rural areas or national parks. A person vanishes, sometimes from a small, contained area. Search dogs can't find a scent. Their car might be found, but the person themselves is just gone.

Almost as if they were plucked out of existence. Then, the official stories come out, and they often feel lacking. Today, for our first time, Tom and I will be diving into this phenomenon. It's one I've been asked to cover several times, and now that I have Tom on my team, we actually have a chance, so. We're looking at three stories that fit this chilling mold. These aren't just cases of people getting lost, no, they are a lot more. We'll be exploring the disappearance of Mara Murray, a nursing student who emailed her professor about a non-existent. family emergency, bought some alcohol and then vanished from a scene of a minor car crash in a few

minutes before the police could arrive. We'll dig into the heartbreaking case of Brandon Lawson, a young father who ran out of gas on a dark Texas highway and made a frantic 911 call claiming he was being chased, followed by some very bizarre comments. And we'll examine the disappearance of Brianna Maitland, a 17-year-old whose car was found abandoned in a in a bizarre, almost staged-looking scene, backed up against a notoriously creepy, burned-out farmhouse. Three people, three missing persons cases, and a collection of disturbing details that will leave you with far more questions than answers.

Let's get into it. Case 1. Mara Murray. What does one think when they hear a story that starts with a 21-year-old nursing student who has suddenly reached out to her professors with some vaguely worded excuse about a family emergency, especially when there wasn't one. To make the story even weirder, she packs her things, drives to an ATM to withdraw small amount of cash, buys some alcohol, and then takes off driving north.

Well, if you guess that this sounds like the run-up to someone going missing, then you get top marks. because on February 9th, 2004, 21-year-old Mara Murray did all of those things. She wrote to her professors about a completely fictitious story about a family emergency, and then she left town, the ATM trip and alcohol included. Mara Murray drove into the cold February night

for reasons unknown. Around 7.30 p.m. in the New Hampshire town of Haverill, her Saturn slid off the road and into a snowbank. She was offered help by a local, a bus driver who lived nearby and who witnessed the accident. But she waved him off, refused. Minutes later, the police arrived, but Mara was gone. The police found her deserted car, windshield cracked, an airbag deployed,

and a few of her personal belongings scattered around. Of course, they quickly began to search. the area. There was a lot of snow on the ground, so surely they could follow her footprints, right? Well, they tried. The problem being that her trail did not go far. There was no sign of her in the woods. There weren't even any signs of a hitchhiking attempt gone wrong. There was absolutely no trace of the young woman. So this is where we're going to start talking about a lot of the theories that began to circulate in regards to Mara's disappearance. With no real answers, theories and speculations are all we have.

And trust me, I know how frustrating that is. I don't like incomplete puzzles either. Theory one is panic and exposure. Given the accident and how absolutely traumatized having an airbag deployed in your face can be, broken nose if you're really unlucky, a concussion is almost a carer. guarantee, not to mention just how disorienting any kind of impact in a vehicle can be. It's possible that she wandered off in a haze and died somewhere of hypothermia and possible internal injuries from the accident.

If her bell was wrong, so to speak, this is an entirely plausible scenario. Even if we don't necessarily think it tastes satisfying. But when you're concussed and it's also possible she'd been drinking, remember the alcohol she bought, then it's entirely possible that she wandered off into the woods or somewhere and just never woke up again. Now, the reason we don't really like this theory is because I don't really think they ever found anything solid to suggest she had wandered very far from the scene of the accident.

Which leads us to theory too, foul play. Another often tossed around theory is that Mara had hitchhiked, or accepted a ride from someone that, well, frankly, didn't have her best interest in mind, which is a solid-sounding theory, even has a neat little bow on it to wrap it up. She got in the car with the stranger and was never seen again. The only huge problem with that is that no one has ever found any evidence that suggests this is, in fact, what happened. But it's the easy answer.

and I can understand people believing or wanting to believe this theory. But if there's no evidence to suggest that this is the most credible theory, well, I'd be reluctant to accept this as the final answer, which pulls us into theory three, voluntary disappearance. This is perhaps the absolute darkest theory to consider. Why would Mara ever want to just walk away from her family? from school? What could she possibly gain by just dropping completely out of sight?

This theory is less a theory and more of just a huge what-if, followed by questions much like what I just spelled out. I feel at least the other two theories are a bit more stable to try and stand on personally. But we're going to look at it anyway. What if? What if she was trying to escape from academic pressure that she'd been dealing with silently all on her own? I guess it wouldn't be the first time that something like that had happened.

Perhaps she did have a bit of a mental breakdown from the pressure. And once she got a couple of drinks in her, she decided, I'm done. And she just took off driving into the snowy winter night. Perhaps she had something else personal going on. Maybe it wasn't necessarily the academic pressure wearing on her mental health, but maybe her mental health was still the underlying issue. It's possible she had a really bad panic attack, and maybe she just ran. Perhaps she had some kind of secret that no one ever pinned down, but if her disappearance was voluntary, I do put forth this question.

If she disappeared voluntarily, if she chose to not be around anymore, why is she never resurfaced, even after 21 years? As far as I can tell, no one has ever really reported a sight of her. of someone that looks like her, or they thought maybe this girl in the coffee shop could be the missing Mara Murray. I guess it's possible that's happened, however, but I found no information to say that that is what happened. If I'm mistaken, I do apologize. But now that we've gotten some of that speculation and theory out of the way, let's look at

some of what we do know for sure. evidence is worth thrice its weight in gold. Let's look at the state of her car, for instance. Even prior to the night she disappeared, her Saturn was known to have, let's say, reliability issues. And the night her car was found abandoned, there was a rag stuffed in the tailpipe. I honestly can't think of a very good reason for this.

I've heard speculation that it was to help with some kind of exhaust issue, but I've never heard any mechanic, shade tree or otherwise, say anything about stuffing a rag in a tailpipe as being a good idea. Generally speaking, that blocks the exhaust, and then would eventually fill the cab with those lovely CO2 fumes, which, I suppose, could even lend some credence to some of the theories. If someone had put that rag in there without her knowing, it could have created a very hazy and confused mental state.

If she even had a touch of carbon monoxide poisoning, that would even possibly explain her initial crash into the snowbank. Of course, the alcohol found in the car could also explain that. The police found both an open box of wine in her car as well as the bottle she had bought that night that was partially gone. But during our research, that little detail about the rag and the tailpipe is really eating at me. And I want to put forth my own personal theory, this is Tom. Tom's personal theory, if you'll indulge us a bit. So, Tom's personal theory, sabotage. Now, I really don't see a father telling his daughter to stuff a rag in her tailpipe.

Not if he knew the first thing about cars, and he wanted his daughter to be safe. The speculation here would be that perhaps someone Mara knew had put it there. If they had known or even orchestrated a reason for her to leave, not known. knowing about her tailpipe being blocked. All someone would have to do is follow her at a safe distance, wait for the fumes to do what such toxic fumes do, and then when she crashed or stopped because she was feeling sick or light-headed, and wanted some air, well, that'd be the golden opportunity.

They could watch her car hit the snowbank, wait for the good Samaritan to leave, and then pull up. If she was unaware that this person had some kind of design in hurting her, she would probably get in the car of a friend from school, or possibly even a professor, without thinking twice. It would explain there being no signs of a hitchhike gone wrong, no sign of a struggle. And again, that's all Tom's personal theory,

born from the fact that there was a rag in the muffler. It's one of those things that there's just no good reason for, and I can't imagine anyone telling her to do it as a makeshift fix. And I feel it's a detail that maybe a lot of people overlook. When that little detail was found in research, it was almost said as an after-the-fact kind of thing. With all that said, you are of course welcome to your own opinions, theories or speculations. That's what keeps these cases alive in people's minds, and sometimes can lead to some really interesting theories,

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You're made for negotiate, and the TD is there for you aid. Case 2. Brandon Lawson. This case was another listener suggestion that was probably actually the first one we received. So it's been a slow burn, and sorry it took so long, but here is the strange and heartbreaking story of what we know about Brandon Lawson. His disappearance, an ultimate discovery. Brandon Lawson worked very hard to take care of his young family.

At 26 years old, he was working in the Texas oil fields for as many as 60 hours a week. He worked himself so hard as he had a young family to take care of. His girlfriend, Ladesa, and their two small children. Outwardly, he seemed to be a very happy man, enjoying life with his family. Inwardly, however, was a different story. Brandon was dealing with ever-increasing levels of stress, trying to take care of a newborn child while balancing that heavy 60 hours a week work schedule.

Here is where Brandon fell into one of those age-old traps that ensnare so many people. To cope with his ever-increasing stress, Brandon began to use drugs and ended up addicted to methamphetamine. Of course, as substances are often known to do, it created a terrible strain on his relationship with Ladesa. From Brandon's point of view, he was doing what he had to do in order to keep taking care of his family. Good intentions do pave a certain notorious road.

And from her point of view, it was just reckless and irresponsible to bring drugs into their family home. This meant that oftentimes, they would have arguments. And sometimes those arguments would hit a point where Brandon would have to just leave. August 9th of 2013 was one such night. After a particularly bad argument, when Brandon came home high, after promising not to do so, he took off in a bit of rage and that was the last time Ladesa saw him. He called his dad and asked if he could stay the night, and then he got in his truck and drove off. When his father said that he could, Brandon immediately began to head that way.

However, only 30 minutes into what was supposed to be a three-hour drive, Brandon's truck truck ran out of gas. He coasted to the side of the road, his truck now parked half-asardly. The first person he called was his brother Kyle, asking him if he could bring a can of gas, and his brother agreed. There were more than one phone calls between the pair and Kyle said that his brother was talking strangely, and kept talking about being followed by three Mexican men that were trying to chase him out of town, before the phone call abruptly ended. By this point, Brandon's drug habit had been going on for a few months, and Kyle, who had also had experienced dealing with the substance,

had quickly picked up on Brandon's problem. There had been times when Brandon had called Kyle in a full-blown withdrawal fit, begging him to help him find some meth and Kyle would refuse. Based on what he knew of his brother's issues, Kyle thought it was just hallucinations, and he didn't think anything more of, it and proceeded to take a can of gas to his stranded brother. In the meantime, Brandon would also call law enforcement to request immediate help as he was in fear

for his life. The three Mexican men were again mentioned as the source of his fear. The act of him calling the police was, in itself, very strange. Brandon was currently wanted by the police for drug violations, so for him to contact them, he either had to be very out of his mind or he had to be facing very real danger. Both Kyle and the police arrived around the same time, but Brandon was nowhere to be seen, although his empty truck was still sitting there abandoned.

Kyle tried to call his brother, who answered and said that he could see Kyle standing with the police, and he refused to come out. Assuming that Brandon was worried about being arrested, did Kyle return to his vehicle and sat there until long after the police had left. But Brandon never came out. It was around this time that Brandon also stopped answering his phone. Unsure of what else to do, Kyle filled his brother's truck up with the gasoline he had brought for him,

and then he called into the night that he was leaving. At that point, Kyle didn't realize that the incredibly bizarre phone call he and Brandon had just a little while ago was the last time he would ever talk to his brother. He returned the next day and found his brother's truck still exactly where it had been sitting the night before, but Brandon was still nowhere to be found. Initially, when word began to spread that Brandon was missing, the rumors and theories began to make the rounds,

and most people didn't even suggest that anything truly sinister had happened, or that there was any kind of foul play involved. Well, that was until Brandon's phone call to 911 first came out. Those calls would absolutely change everyone's perception of what happens there along Highway 277. I've listened to one of the calls. It's on YouTube, and it's only 57 seconds long, and it's... Strange. If anyone wants to open a new tab and go look it up, feel free.

The call is pretty short, and Brandon's talking really fast, and it almost sounds as if some of his words are clipped off. There are points where you can actually hear him running, and it's clear by his voice that he's scared. It sounds like he says something about accidentally running into someone, and then at 29 seconds into the call, what sounds like a gunshot can be heard in the background. It's also at this point that a second voice can be heard on the call.

Brandon was supposed to be alone, or was allegedly alone. After the gunshots heard, Brandon said, They shot the first guy, after which the 911 operator asks if he needs an ambulance. The second unidentified voice says yes, while Brandon says, no, I need the cops. When the operator asks if anyone is hurt,

there are another three gunshots, after which Brandon stops responding. It would be nearly 10 years before anyone would find Brandon Lawson. In February of 2022, the police would finally find Brandon's clothing a mile from where his truck had been abandoned, shortly after they found human remains in the same area. Those remains would later be identified as Brandon Lawson. The site where the remains were found were in a location the police claimed to have thoroughly searched. multiple times.

This is where you can call this a conspiracy theory or speculation or a strange event. Either police were incredibly incompetent, like shouldn't be left alone with scissors level of incompetent, or they were complicit, if not involved in Brandon's demise. Which police involvement does seem to be kind of the prevailing suspicion. You can make of that what you will. It's an incredibly bittersweet ending to a very very, sad story. Originally this was just going to be a missing person's case, but as we looked into it,

it was discovered that it was announced in December of 2024 that his remains had been located. There were some complications in the wake of the identification that delayed them being returned to the family, and that's why I think it took so long after the discovery for it to be publicly announced that he'd been located. However, we still have few ideas of what may have happened to Brandon that night in 2014, and the 10-year gap between. But, at least he's been returned to his family. And hopefully this is just the first step toward the closure they deserve. Case 3.

Brianna Maitland. Now, I know that some people might debate. In fact, I know some definitely will. This being a 4-1-1 case. But going off, lot of the information that we have, the circumstances of her disappearance, where she disappeared from, the way her car was found abandoned, it all bears the hallmarks of a missing 411 case. The big difference being that with Brianna's case, we just have a few more pieces of the puzzle.

We have a bit more evidence that more openly indicates foul play and other criminal intent. I won't argue that. That being said, given the striking similarities with Mara Murray's case and Brandon Lawson's prior to its solving, I'm curating those three cases side by side. Tough, but warm-hearted and independent. That is what people will say about Breonna have asked. So very independent that she didn't really even let a schedule dictate her life. It was a bit of a wild streak that her friends all admired about her.

her. At 17, she was independent, living with friends instead of her parents. Plus, she was holding down two jobs. Brianna wasn't happy with the stifling small-town life she had known her whole life, and she had big plans. Brianna had left school for a while, but when she started setting her sights on a culinary career, the young woman quickly returned to class, determined to get her diploma. March 19th of 2004 was actually a huge day for Brianna with a lot of implications for her future. That morning she took her GED exam, which is a big day for anyone, and for her that marked her first step into a world beyond education, of being considered in adults by most metrics.

After the exam that morning, Brianna met with her mother for lunch. Later, her mother would say that Brianna would say that Brianna, She seemed very upbeat, if not a little, distracted that day. Before her shift later that night, Brianna would go for a shopping trip that afternoon and return to her friend's house, where she was staying at the time, before heading into work that evening. She owned a 1985 Oldsmobile, solid car for anyone wondering, and that was what she drove to Montgomery, Vermont for her shift at the Blacklight Inn.

Dishwashing wasn't glamorous work, but it was a stepping stone for what she was hoping to achieve. It was after her shift that, well, her dreams would simply vanish alongside her. It was 11.20 p.m. when she stepped out into the night. March nights in Vermont are cold, so she probably rushed to her car, eager to get it started and get the heater running. And from here is where the mystery was. begins. Instead of making the short drive home, her car was later found next to an abandoned farmhouse, locally referred to as the Dutch burnout. The building itself has a bit of an eerie reputation around town. Little more than the deteriorating skeleton of what once may have been a quaint little abode. Now it was less cozy and a more enigmatic menace. The house itself had burned decades earlier and this twisted,

out husk was all that was left. Naturally in a place like New England and especially Vermont, where the winters are long, the farmhouse itself built a reputation of being haunted, or cursed. It became the kind of place where kids would dare each other to go spend the night, just to prove how brave they were. A sight of one of those old rural rites of passage, I think you could call it. And maybe, that fed in to... to the uncanniness of the scene that was discovered the next morning.

It was bizarre, maybe even surreal, almost as if it were a staged performance. Brianna's car sitting there, headlights on. The doors were unlocked and all of her personal effects were there. Purse, medication, uncashed paycheck, all there. But no, Brianna. This is where that independent. dependent streak so many admired about her actually became a double-edged sword.

When the deputy first found her car, he didn't treat it like a disappearance at all. In fact, he was more inclined to think someone had just abandoned it there after a night of too much drinking. So even while her abandoned car was quickly found, with the officer's dismissal and the fact it took hours before her parents realized that Brianna was missing, it caused a massive delay. The hours that were lost, not necessarily by any kind of outright incompetence, so much as maybe negligence, by the deputy, and the fact that she didn't live with her parents, so naturally it would have taken them longer to realize something foul was afoot. But what all of this did mean was that by the time she was reported missing, and the police realized they had her car and that the Dutch burn was where she had vanished from,

the scene had been completely altered as her car had been towed away. Any signs of a scuffle in the dirt near the car had been thoroughly disturbed if not completely erased by the tow truck. The deputy that initially discovered her car had no reason to believe that it was anything but the most common little rural backroad oddity. Someone ditched their car because they were too drunk to drive wherever they were going. Her friends noticed her absence faster than her family. But everyone assumed that she was with everyone else, and communications broke down. Unfortunately, Brianna's independent streak had created some complications. As often happens with cases such as these, those precious golden hours when evidence and memories of witnesses are more fresh were lost.

After the initial connections were made, between Brianna's disappearance and the abandoned Oldsmobile, leads and rumors began to fly around. People almost immediately suspected foul play. This was seemingly supported when, after the scene was examined, once the car had been towed, there was a scattering of Brianna's belongings, including a broken necklace, the only real evidence of a possible struggle between Brianna and an attacker.

There were also the rumors about Brianna being involved in some way with the local drug trade. More rumors said, that she had actually made the wrong people mad somehow, and one of her associates may have even been the ones to run her off the road. The already unsettling nature of the place her car was found never helped the stories that began to circulate. Some of them leaned into more bizarre theories, like supernatural ones, that some old evil still living in the Dutch burnout had taken her. Once facts had run dry, then the really weird story,

stories and theories began to make the rounds. In a very short time, other stories began to surface that just muddied the waters even further. Someone that knew someone saw Brianna's car the night she disappeared driving around. A witness said they saw Brianna's car at the Dutchburn with more than one person silhouetted by the headlights. No one can say for sure who those figures might have been. What is odd about these stories was that they became repeated so often by different people. Some said they just saw the car, parked so deliberately against the abandoned house. More people began to say that they had indeed seen shadowed figures around the car.

Who was seen by her car that night? Were they strangers? Were they people she knew and maybe trusted enough to meet by a creepy abandoned place like the Dutch burnout? Did they even exist? And sadly, so much time has passed now that was. we might never know of the answers of the questions left in Brianna's wake. What we are left with is that haunting scene of Brianna's car sitting alongside that creepy Dutch burnout. Headlights cutting through the dark and a broken necklace in the dirt.

The only witnesses to whatever happened to Brianna that night. Three people. Three abandoned vehicles and three puzzles that are still missing their most important pieces. That's the unsettling nature of the missing 411 phenomenon. The clues that are left behind, like a rag and a tailpipe, a 911 call, or a car bizarrely staged at a burned-out farmhouse, they don't lead to answers. They simply lead to speculation.

For Brandon Lawson, his family at least has him home, though the full truth of that night on the highway and the time between, remains elusive. For Mara and Brianna, the mystery is frozen in time, leaving their loved ones in a painful limbo. As Tom said, keeping these cases in the public mind is what matters. So, what's your theory? What do you make of that 911 call, or the rag in Mara's tailpipe? What do you think happened in these cases? And, since this was our first dive into the 411 phenomenon, Let us know in the comments if you'd like us to explore more of these baffling cases. Or if you have a suggestion of cases to cover or topics, please let us know.

We're always interested in your thoughts, or if you have any suggestions. It's kind of what helps shape these episodes, to be honest with you. So please do let us know. Also, if you want to get a hold of me or have a story you want to send in, go to ashtravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. can also email me at As the Raven Dreams at gmail.com. If you're on YouTube, be sure to like the video, subscribe, and leave a comment there. If you're listening to the podcast, be sure to rate the podcast if you want to, of course.

And leave a comment if you're on Spotify as well. All that said, friends, I hope you all have a fantastic day, and hope I see you again here very soon. But until then, remember that you are loved, you are valid, and you are important, and the world is a better place with you in it. Until next time, my friends, much love, and sleep well.