'I Want Closure': Mother Of Missing Columbine Massacre Survivor Brandi Jo Malonson Makes Renewed Plea For Help

The mother of a missing Colorado woman who overcame many hurdles in her young life — including surviving the 1999 Columbine High School massacre — is pleading for help to find her 15 years after her disappearance.

Brandi Jo Malonson, 38, has been missing since 2006. Her mother, Linda Malonson, told Colorado’s KDVR on Friday that she believes that somebody knows what happened to her daughter. She is now pleading for anyone with information to come forward.

“I want closure,” she said. “The best thing is, I’d love for her to come home and give us a big hug […] but I don’t know. I just want somebody to come forward and say, ‘I know this happened’ and we need proof.”

Brandi Jo Malonson was 23 years old when she vanished around the end of 2006.

“The day after Christmas in 2006, on December 26th, she left smiling, happy,” her mother told the station. “She said, ‘I’m leaving, mom, I’ll be back, I promise.’ And I’ve never seen her again.”

A few months after she vanished, friends and associates contacted her family and told them Brandi Jo Malonson had died of an overdose or was killed and her body had been dumped, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations. There have also been rumors that her body was disposed of in the Platte River or in the mountains, but none of these rumors were ever verified and her case is considered to have gone cold.

Before vanishing, Malonson endured many tragedies. She was a freshman at Columbine High School in 1999 when several of her classmates and a teacher were murdered.

“She was a normal little teenager until it happened, then after Columbine, I just really think she is a victim of all that,” her mom told KDVR. “That was day one when it all started.”

Linda Malonson noted that her daughter always tried to be there for others and never wanted to seek out therapy for herself.

“In the years afterward, she lost many of her high school friends from shootings and suicides,” her uncle, Ed Brady, who is currently a candidate for Jefferson County sheriff, wrote on his Facebook page.

Two of her friends were also murdered at a Subway shop in Littleton on Feb. 14, 2000, according to a Facebook page run by the missing woman's family. 

“She also had a friend of hers commit suicide on 11/10/2000. Brandi was the last person that he called,” the page states. “He left a message on her cell phone. She wasn’t able to answer her phone because she was at work. All three of these horrible deaths devastated her.”

Malonson ended up struggling with drug addiction — methamphetamine, specifically, following the tragedies. She was on probation at the time of her disappearance.

Now, her mother is pleading for anyone who was involved to come forward. She's indicating that she would forgive anyone involved in criminal activity.

“Maybe they’ve recovered from their drug addiction, if they were part of that, and they want to come forward. I hope they do,” Linda told the local station. “It’s just a sad situation. I don’t want anyone to ever go through what we’ve gone through. I’m a very forgiving person. Even if somebody said, ‘I did that to her or helped with that,’ I’d probably forgive them because I know they’re going through a lot. You can’t let that beat down on your soul.”

Brady said that his family is holding on to the hope that they will find closure

"My sister deserves to know what happened to her beautiful daughter," he wrote.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP. Tipsters could be eligible for a cash reward.