Dateline: Missing In America - The Day Zelig Vanished

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

On October 3, 2024, 28-year-old Broadway performer Zelig Williams disappeared from Columbia, South Carolina. He was last seen by his mother, Kathy Williams, when he left her house around 9:50 that morning. After he failed to return home, Kathy filed a missing person’s report with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. The next night, Zelig’s car was discovered at the Palmetto Trailhead with some of his belongings inside. Despite extensive searches, no trace of Zelig has been found, and the investigation remains active. Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz speaks with Zelig’s loved ones and Investigator JP Smith of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. Zelig Williams is about 5’9” and 175 lbs., with brown eyes. He would be 29 today. Anyone with information regarding his disappearance is asked to contact the Richland County Sheriff’s Department at 803-576-3000 or Midland Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC. Get more information and see pictures of Zelig Williams here: https://www.nbcnews.com/datelinemissing Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

New York City has always had a magnetic pull for young bright-eyed performers looking for their big break, that part in a Broadway show that takes you from obscurity to stardom. Like the song says, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. The line missing from that anthem of hope is that most of those would-be stars do not make it there. Those are dreams that a lot of people have, but very few people achieve. You're right. You're definitely right. Zellig Williams was one of those rare success stories.

I literally looked at him while he was dancing, and I was like, you're going to be a star. I just knew it. Zellig was just 19 and attending college when he landed a role in the ensemble of a little musical you may have heard of. I am not throwing away my shot. Hamilton. What was that like seeing him on stage? Amazing. A legit triple threat.

He wanted to perfect his craft, whether it was dance, acting, singing. He truly studied it and wanted to just be the best version of himself. By the time he was 28, Zellig was a Broadway veteran and ready to. share what he had learned with the next generation. What's up, y'all? I've been planning on doing a two-day workshop slash boot camp for dancers on how to audition for a Broadway show. He would never get the chance to impart all that wisdom. That's because on October 3, 2004, Zellig Williams disappeared.

I'm Josh Mankowitz, and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Dateline. This episode is The Day Zellig vanished. Please listen closely, because you or someone you know may have information that could help Zellig's family find the answers they're looking for. Zellig Williams was born in the Palmetto State, South Carolina. He had two older sisters and was raised by his mother, Kathy Williams. He was an awesome little boy. Zellig's aunt Christine Barber saw her nephew blossom.

He was very energetic, loving, caring. He clung to his mom. He loved his family dearly, his cousins, his grandma. He just loved everybody. Family was an anchor in his life. So was the church. Here's his cousin, Miyoka Corbett Jacobs. He was full of faith and he was full of belief for his life.

Zellig spoke about that nexus between faith and career. On the podcast, A Time to Live with Amanda Jane Cooper. I grew up in the church, and I grew up having a, I felt like I had a connection with God. My sister sang at church, and so I just followed their lead. Looking back, that was probably the start of something. I sort of get the feeling he was a performer from very young. Yes, probably at the age of two or three, my baby girl used to step and she come home. and she was stepping front of him.

He just sit and look, and he just picked up just like that. A born dancer. Yes. In 2004, the Williams family faced a brutal tragedy. Both of Zellig's sisters were killed in a car accident. Zellig was just seven years old. After my daughters had passed on, I had to find something to keep him focus. That's how Zellig met Caroline Lewis Jones at a dance studio in Irmo, South Carolina.

She would become his friend and mentor. I'll never forget the day you walked in a dance class. Some people are just naturally born with it, and some people will have to work really hard to achieve what they want. He did both. Zellig graduated high school in 2014. He took a deep breath and made a big leap. He moved to New York City to attend Pace University, where he studied dance.

In the battle between Broadway and going to school, sounds like maybe school lost. Did he finish or how did he balance that? It got to him a little bit, and he set out for a while. On Amanda Jane Cooper's podcast, he talked about the pressures he'd been facing. So there was a phase where I got to a breaking point of doing school and the show at the same time. I wasn't like failing or anything, but it was. It wasn't my best because I was trying to do everything. I was stretching myself too thin.

But he went back and got his degree. Which made you very happy. Yes, of course. Did you go see him on Broadway? I did. I would say all the time. Zellig's big break did not end with Hamilton. After two years in that cast, he went on tour with Hugh Jackman

in his 2019 global concert tour, The Man, the Music, the Show. Then in 2022, came a featured part in another Broadway hit, MJ, The Musical. Here's Zellig introducing himself on the show's TikTok feed. My name is Zellew Williams,

and I'm Ensemble slash Marlon Jackson and MJ the musical. On Instagram, he posted a clip from a curtain card. and a moment of celebration after he took on an even bigger role playing Michael Jackson. Zellig spent nearly a decade building his career in New York. By 2024, Zellig had left the cast of MJ the musical and was looking for his next gig. Since he no longer had to be in New York to perform in eight shows a week, Zellig found himself visiting home more and more.

He came back to visit me. Right. And he loved to come home and see my mom. He'll go in the room with her, sang to her, read the Bible to her, and stuff like that. Zellig's grandma passed away in April of that year. His cousin Miyoka says after that loss, Zellig decided to come back to South Carolina for a longer stay. He definitely wanted to spend a little bit more time with his mother. He, of course, went back to New York initially, but then decided to come back just to spend some time.

That did not mean he was giving up on returning to the stage. He kept his apartment in New York and continued to audition remotely. He had his family or friends help him with the scripts and the audition. So, I mean, this was going to be a temporary thing back home. Right. Absolutely. In between his auditions, Zellig wanted to share. tips with other kids, also hoping to make it to Broadway one day.

I've auditioned for a lot of other Broadway shows. So he came up with the idea for a workshop, posting about it on Instagram. So I wanted to give my knowledge back to the students out here in Columbia and nearby areas on how to audition for a Broadway show, because there is skills that you need to have before even getting into the room. This is somebody who, once they had achieved their dream, like still wanted to help other people achieve theirs. That kind of tells you a lot about who he was, doesn't it?

Yes. Hello, everybody. Save the date September 27th and September 28th. Those will be the days we will be doing this boot camp. Unfortunately, when late September 2024 arrived, Mother Nature had other plans in the form of Hurricane Helene. Hundreds of thousands of residents in South Carolina. still without power after Hurricane Helene's devastating winds and heavy rain caused widespread

damage throughout the state. The studio that he was having it at, they had to cancel it because all the electricity was out. Caroline says Zellig was working on rescheduling the workshop for October. Then came Thursday, October 3rd, 2024. Zellig's mom, Kathy, remembers that morning as routine at first. I went outside on the front porch and you saw I was sitting out there and then he came back in the house

and the next thing I know he came back with a pair of shorts on and his top and little flip-flops and a picture of him headshot. Like a head shot? A head shot. And he said, Mama, how you slept last night? I said, I slept good last night.

I said, how you slept? He said, I slept good last night too. And then he walked down, got in the vehicle, and then he drove off. Did he say where he was going? No. Kathy says Zellig left their home around 9.50 a.m. She thought he was going to the local staples to make copies of his headshot, because that was something Zellig would routinely do.

After he left, she was getting ready for the day when her phone rang. It was one of Zellig's friends from New York. And she said, good morning, Miss Kathy. I said, what's up? She said that SOS just came to my phone. And I said, what's going on? The friend received that alert from Zellig's phone at 10.8 a.m. An SOS alert can be set up on your phone.

If your phone detects a severe car crash, it will notify your emergency contacts or contact emergency services. I said Zellick just left home. How could be in an accident that fast? I said, well, I'm going to go right out and see where the accident was. Zellig had only been gone around 20 minutes, so Kathy drove to that staples. No sign of Zellig or any accident.

Then the friend from New York told Kathy where they saw the SOS alert was activated. It was near a place called Angel's Diner in the opposite direction of the Staples. I said, I never heard of that before. So they gave me the address. I know that this had to be terribly stressful for you. Yes, it was. Because you had already lost your daughters in a traffic accident. Yes.

Kathy kept searching and drove to Angels Diner herself. The GPS directed her to a strip of asphalt called Highway 378, known locally as Garner's Ferry Road. There was nothing in the street outside, nothing suggesting, no car parts, no broken glass, nothing. Nothing. Kathy is not the only one who went out to investigate. The Richland County Sheriff's Department got Zellig's SOS alert as well. When that came in, our deputies did respond to that area. That is investigator J.P. Smith. He has spent four decades working in law enforcement.

On one side of the road, it's a diner. The other side of the road is a trailer business. That's a heavily traveled area. We would like to think that of an accident did occur. We would have gotten a call. But when the deputies arrived in that area, there was no sign of accident. Smith is familiar with the SOS alert, its advantages, and its flaws. For the years I've been in law enforcement, I have seen the SOS alert get activated both when somebody's in the accident and when they accidentally drop their phone. They could be driving a car, they slam on brakes, the phone slides forward, hits the floor. I have seen it where somebody is talking on the phone and the phone drops out their hand and it activates the SOS.

The only thing that we can say is activated because the phone had an impact with something. Regardless, his department checked with the highway patrol. And they had no record of an accident taking place or anything like that. They also searched the area near that diner, hoping to find the phone that had initiated the alert. They did not find it, or anything else. Unsure what else she could do, Kathy decided to head home and describes the waiting as agony.

I just wait on him. I just wait on him. But he never came home. All of this felt downright weird to Kathy. I tried to call him. I couldn't get in contact with him. I keep calling his phone. Keep calling his phone. He never answered the phone.

Late that night, Kathy called 911. She says two young deputies from the Richland County Sheriff, Department responded to her home. I was telling him that my son is missing, and I don't know where he's at. And they said, well, your son had a birthday. I said, yes, he did have a birthday in September. And they say, well, he probably still out there, partying, going places and do so that. I said, no, my son don't party like that.

On October 4th, after 24 hours with no word from Zellick, Kathy called her sister Christine. I was at work, and she called me, she said, Chris Z didn't come home last night. I think he's missing. So I got off work, I left, and I came down here, like, right away. Christine believed something was wrong. So she called 911 and told the operator about Zalik.

The Richland County Sheriff's Department came back later that day. Investigators asked more questions this time and took an official missing persons report. When Investigator Smith was assigned Zellig's case, he quickly agreed this was not someone just out partying. He has not contacted family. His normal operations have not taken place. So we're looking at it as a missing person. And in any missing person case, it's serious. Smith's team of investigators began the search for Zellig Williams. We had numerous people a part of the search.

Our air team, the drone operators, the canines. It was a large number of people involved in the search. They ruled out that theory about Zellig going to Staples. That was what she thought because of him having his photograph and a headshot, with him. Investigators found no evidence he had been there that day. We have nothing to say that he went to Staples. And after a few days of searching, law enforcement received a mysterious eyewitness tip.

They saw someone fitting Zellick's description down into the park. Could that point then in the right direction? When someone goes missing, loved ones left behind often go back over every conversation. every interaction, every moment before that person disappeared. Kathy Williams has done all of that, trying to figure out what her son Zellig's thoughts were in the days before he vanished. You have to have looked back over your conversations with him,

Kathy, that day and the day before. Anything unusual? He sound different. You get any hint that he was planning something? Oh, no, no, sir, none of that. And he didn't seem unhappy or distressed or worried or angry or anything? No, he wasn't like that. Kathy says she did not notice anything unusual, but there is no question Zellig had been struggling. The family says while Zellig was living in New York, he'd been facing some mental health issues.

Doctors had prescribed him medication. He even spoke about that in a podcast he created. called Human in the Mirror. I'm glad to be where I'm at with everything that I've been through and where I'm at with my health journey, my mental health journey, my self-love journey. That was eight months before he went missing. He was taking his medication for his mental health.

He was working so hard. Kathy shared that information and everything else she could about Zellig with the Richland County Sheriff's Department. By the end of the night on October 4th, 2024, investigators located the Red Ford escape Zellig was driving. The SUV was left in a parking lot at the intersection of McCord's Ferry Road and Bluff Road near watery South Carolina. That is about half an hour's drive from the Williams home and about 20 minutes from

Angel's Diner, where the SOS. alert went off. Friend Caroline says it was unfamiliar to Zellig's loved ones. When I first went out, I got lost ten times. Like, it's in the middle of nowhere. Investigator J.P. Smith says his team went over the SUV. There was no obvious damages or anything to the car. There was nothing outstanding about it that we saw, but we did look into the car.

Smith confirmed they found some of Zellig's belongings in Sond. I can't comment on what was located in the car as part of the investigation. The family says everything Zellig had with him when he left that morning, except his phone, was found in the car. They found the car with his clothes fold up in it. His shoes is swabbed. That's Kathy's because the clothes were folded. In her mind, Zellig would not have folded his clothes neatly like that. He wouldn't have.

No. Investigators also processed the car's data. They would not comment on the information that revealed. However, the family learned that was not Zellig's first trip to the area near the parking lot. We know the day before on Wednesday, October 2nd, that Zellick had been driving in that area. Anything about that area familiar to him or to any of you? No.

It's like, it's major farmland. The parking lot, lot where Zelig's car was found is located at the Palmetto Trailhead. It's an entrance to a hiking trail, which stretches nearly 500 miles across South Carolina from the mountains to the coast. The trail off that parking lot is wooded and crosses miles of wetlands and river swamp with multiple bridges and places where people can fish, canoe, and kayak. The trailhead is very proper of the trail. People come in from out of town just to walk that trail. It's huge. It is huge. The Richland County Sheriff's Department walked that trail and found no sign of Zellig.

So they turned to local news media for help. On October 5th, they put out a press release about Zellig. Deputies with the Richland County Sheriff's Department are asking for your help and locating a missing 28-year-old man. Just like in any other missing person case, we push all the information. information we can out to the public because if someone see something, we want them to say something. And someone did. A volunteer doing maintenance on the Palmetto Trail reached out and said he was approached by someone who said they'd seen a man on the trail who was in some type of distress. The description the eyewitness gave matched that of Zellie Williams. The volunteer told investigators he went down the train.

to see if he could find that person, but was unable to do so. That tip came complete with a problem. That volunteer did not get contact information for the eyewitness. And Investigator Smith says they have not been able to identify that person. We haven't talked to that person. We don't know who that is. Still, that tip, vague as it was, did give investigators an area to focus their search. We used boats, ATVs, airplanes, drones, you name it, we used it.

Local NBC affiliate WIS documented the efforts and kept Zellig's name in the news cycle. A very active search is underway right now. Right now family members are continuing on with their own search. Given Zellig's Broadway profile, it did not take long for his disappearance to hit social media too. Tick-Tock, Instagram, YouTube. I desperately need your help in finding this man. If you know anything or think you have seen him, please contact the police or their tip line. Even Hugh Jackman, who worked with Zellig on his touring show, posted on Instagram saying, quote, Zellig, we love you and are praying for your safe return. National news stories followed.

We are now hearing from the family of a missing Broadway dancer who vanished in South Carolina. With all that attention, Kathy and her family knew they needed someone to take charge. Cousin Miyoka took on that role. She began fielding interview requests, talking with investigators, and coordinating search efforts. She quickly found out she had a lot more questions than answers. There's limited resources about how do I support my cousin? How do I help organize the search? What do we do?

How do we get missing flyers? How do we get those out? Early on, the Black and Missing Foundation helped create and distribute flyers. Other organizations such as We Are the Essentials and Missing Link, whose mission is to support families of the missing and guide them through crisis, also stepped up.

There's not much of a playbook on this, I know. Well, I'm working with Missing Link now to write it because I come from a very corporate infrastructure with Verizon. I'm retired as a chief of staff. for the Senior Vice President of Customer Care, so I'm just used to playbooks, and there is no playbook that exist.

And I can't imagine another family going through that. On October 16, 2004, 13 days after Zellig disappeared, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, held a press conference. I want to thank all the media for being here today because you play a very important part in bringing closure to this family

and helping us to find Mr. Williams. We need help of the community. We need help from everybody to be involved in this search. Miyoka also spoke at the press conference. She shared those details about Zellig's mental health and said that when he vanished, Zellig did not have his medication with him. Right before Zellig went missing,

he stopped taking his medicine is the belief, okay? And that would put him in a situation that he would be very, very vulnerable, all right? Mom Kathy also stepped up to the mic with a raw and emotional plea. I just woke to come home. You're all like that. I said, you're all that got. You're all like that.

It was a difficult time in Richland County, still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which had hit nearly three weeks earlier. South Carolina is recovering from Hurricane Helene. We have seen so much damage in the area from down trees to down power lines. Undeterred, a group of volunteers from the community came to assist in the search. I just was so appreciative of how many people came to support. It won't be an easy search, but they're going to continue to look for as much as they can. Investigator Smith says damage from the hurricane made their search efforts along the Palmetto Trail much more challenging.

The landscape had totally changed. The water from the storm had pushed things up probably in a safe estimate, three to four feet higher. So there were a lot of safety concerns. Numerous searches were done pertaining to that area. Zellig's friend Caroline says she and her husband even took boats out of the river to look for him. It's like a very snaky river. the water was extremely high that day. So you're dealing with a lot of variables

in terms of the environment and how the landscape changed. So if he did somehow end up in the water, that would be very tricky. Days became weeks, with no sign of Zellig and no news. His family was growing more and more anxious, and their thoughts were about to lead them

to even darker places. Anything come of any of those searches that point you in any particular direction? No, the only direction those searches point us into is foul way. Many 20-somethings are more than willing to share every detail of their lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly on social media. Zellig Williams, ever the performer, took it all a step further. Hello, hello, welcome to Human in the Mirror with Zellick Will. That's Zellick.

In that podcast, he released eight months before he disappeared. He shared updates there about his professional life. This is my first time as a professional performer, not having a job, and I'm in a new season of transition. He shared even more on Instagram, like dancing videos. Five, six, seven, hey. Excerpts of his singing. as well as those personal details about his mental health. I'm sharing because I know there might be some other brother out there that might be struggling.

He also spoke about a different struggle he was facing. Hello everyone. This is Zellig. I wanted to hop on here and just let you guys know a testimony on my side. I've been delivered from homosexuality. I'm thankful to be where I'm at right now. I struggle with this for so long, and I feel free. I feel like I can be myself again. That video begins with him saying,

I've been delivered from homosexuality. Right. Which feels like some admission of shame from him, which I heard that I felt so bad for him. Yes. So just think about, what we have to think about even as a family is, Zellig is a free spirit. He's a beautiful soul, right?

And at the age of 18 or 19, he's in New York, and he is involved in Broadway and meeting a lot of people having a lot of experiences with his traveling. He's had a lot of experiences. And he was impressionable and young. And now he's older, and he's trying to figure it out. Cousin Miyoka says that as much as Zellig shared online, he didn't talk to. much with his family about his sexuality. It feels like he was wrestling with his sexuality. Oh, absolutely.

Oh, yes. He was figuring it up. And it wasn't like anybody was cutting him off because of his sexuality or because of any of those issues. Nobody was threatening to, you know, sort of throw him out of the family or stop talking to him. Right. I don't know about you guys, but I don't, you know, have conversations about my sexuality. to my mom. Right.

That's not the topic of discussion. Right. So, could all the different struggles Zalig was facing have led him to harm himself? His family doesn't think so. He had stuff he wanted to do. He was interested in his camp. He was planning on

going back to New York, going back on stage. This is not somebody who sort of abruptly decided to stop. You know? And none of that says self-harm to me. No. He had tried out for some parts

and had gotten a callback or either part that was supposed to start in January. Yeah, in January. And he was excited about his future. Plus, they all say Zellig was a mama's boy. After the loss of his sisters, that attachment only grew. This family does not think Zellig would put Kathy

through the pain of losing another child. There was no question. The love for his mother was. He knows what they went through together, and he wouldn't leave her. And that was too spiritual. Yes. He was too spiritual to do it. It's hard to believe he would want to put you through that again.

No. He would never do that. When I first started reading about this, I thought to myself, this story's different. This person did this to himself. This is not somebody else is doing. But the more I read about this and the more I talk to you guys, it's really just not clear. I mean, you do have this sort of mental health component, and you do have some sort of feeling of shame or anguish that comes out of that Instagram video. But on the other hand, like, this guy is not going to disappear and leave you behind.

No, exactly. And what you don't have is his journals. What you don't have is his dreams and what his intent was, right? And there is no intent to do any harm to himself or no intent. You can have moments where you're sad or you're going through things, but if I get anything from all the things I read is that Zellig was full of hope. So if Zellig did not harm himself, could something else have happened, maybe an accident? His family is not sure.

With no evidence of that and no solid leads, they had to consider another more disturbing possibility. What did you think it happened, Kathy? I really don't know. I just say somebody got him. You think this is foul play? I thought somebody had got my child. I think our consensus is just based on all the information that we have is that, yes, we do believe that foul play is involved.

In their minds, foul play could suggest different scenarios. They wonder if Zellig was going to the trailhead to meet up with someone. And maybe the encounter went wrong. If he went there to meet someone, no idea who. No. Zero. Or a second scenario.

Maybe someone Hans Zelig in another location and then moved his car to the trailhead. There's a possibility that someone drove that car and parked there. For us to believe that that's where it was. And the phone's never been found. Right. The dogs never picked up a cent at all, never. Given how active Zellig was online, that someone could have been anyone.

He was constantly auditioning and talking to people in his room on his laptop through Zoom, auditioning, preparing for parts, studying his spirituality, having meetings with that as well. Zellig followed some very specific, like, public figures in terms of, you know, some different churches and prophets that he was very connected to and journaled about them, and he tagged them. Zellig was immersing himself in multiple congregations. He'd gotten baptized and was joining young adult and men's groups. He was really trying to find a community here in Columbia.

Do you have any sense that anybody that he was in contact with from any of the churches that he was involved with was trying to control Zellig or might have in any way been involved in this? Everything's on the table, but yes, we have thought of, yes, of all those things. Thought of all of those things, but there's nothing pointing to that right now. No. There's kind of nothing pointing to anything. You're right.

Investigators say they have done their best to track the data from Zellig's digital footprint, trying to find any of the people he'd been interacting with online, before he disappeared. We have accessed some information pertaining to the phone records. I can't go into detail with that because we are still dealing with an open investigation. Of course, it makes it harder when you don't have the actual phone, but that information is still being looked into. Zellig had two computers as well, which Smith's team is still examining.

Those computers were brought to our attention, and we're all looking into both of those matters. Investigator Smith says his team has to keep some secrets. We still have this open case. We don't know where it's going to lead, so we're protective of information because we want to find Zelik. We can't comment on his medical state. We speak to the family on a regular basis. They voice their concerns to us, and we're going to consider all of that information that we're receiving from the family. We were spoken with numerous people that knew him, that worked with him.

If there is someone, investigators have missed. Smith wants to hear from them. If someone or anyone has information that causes them concern about who he may have came in contact with, we encourage them to give us a call so we can look into it. And if they can tell us why they have concerns about it. People who were in Columbia or at the chorehead during this time days before, days after, they had a family meeting, family reunion, anything. just give us a call.

Someone else they would like to talk with? That lone eyewitness who reported seeing someone who looked like Zellig in the park on the day he disappeared. If that person hears this or hear any other news feed, we want that person to come back and say what they saw and exactly where they saw it at.

Investigator Smith says he and his team have not ruled anything out. We're still looking at. looking into it. It's still a definitely an active investigation that's going on. The searches for Zellig are ongoing. The family is beginning to play in their next one for October. The state of South Carolina has a motto, Dom Spiro Sparrow. Translated from the Latin, it means, while I breathe, I hope. For Zellig's loved ones, those words ring very true. Do you think he's still alive?

I think so. I hope so. We understand the likelihood of Zelig still being present with us is slim. We know the probabilities, but the possibility is that he is alive. We want answers, period. And we just pray for those things. As his family approaches the two-year anniversary of his disappearance this fall, They remember Zelig as a performer, a son, a friend.

A young man who worked hard and dreamed big. If you have any information about Zelig Williams' disappearance, please come forward. Zellig Williams is about 5'9 and 175 pounds with brown eyes. He will turn 30 in September. Anyone with information about Zellig's disappearance should call the Richland County Sheriff's Department at 803-576,000, or the Midland Crime Stoppers at 1-888-C. To look at pictures of Zellig and to learn about other people we've covered in our Missing in America series, go to dateline missing in America.com. there you will also be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you Fridays for Dateline on NBC. Or you can stream anytime on Peacock, YouTube, or by subscription on the NBC News app. You can also listen to full Dateline episodes and original podcast series wherever you're listening right now. Subscribe to Dateline Premium for Early Access and add free. listening for all our podcasts. Missing in America is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Veronica Maseka is the producer of this episode. Sarah Dahlberg is the associate producer.

Brian Drew is the editor. Bradley Davis is senior producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, Jessica Fenton is head of audio production.