Questions Linger In 3 Mysterious Missing Persons Cases Featured In ‘Searching For’ Docu-series

In the United States, there are currently more than 85,000 cases of missing people. “Searching For,” an original series on Oxygen.com, explores three of them — Nancy Moyer, Jenna Van Gelderen and Akia Eggleston. 

Moyer, a 36-year-old mother of two, vanished without a trace on a chilly Friday evening in 2009 from her home in Tenino, Washington. Van Gelderen, 25, was housesitting for her parents in the summer of 2017 when she vanished from Atlanta. Twenty-two-year-old Eggleston, a pregnant single mother, went missing from Baltimore in May 2017 after being dropped off at home by a friend. 

Their disappearances remain unsolved to this day, and the victims' families are still fighting for justice and closure. While local law enforcement agencies continue to search for answers, these are four lingering questions about the cases. 

Need to catch up on the cases? Watch them all and read up on what’s known here. 

When Nancy Moyer was reported missing by her former husband, Bill Moyer, on March 9, 2009, there was no mention of Nancy owning a cell phone.  

Her purse, keys, driver’s license, credit cards and checkbook were still inside her home, and one of the only items missing was a “long brown coat with fur type lining around the bottom,” according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Oxygen.com. 

In interviews with “Hide and Seek,” a podcast dedicated to the case, loved ones had conflicting accounts about whether or not Nancy owned a cell phone. 

Earlier this year, Bill told “Searching For” Nancy did have “a cell phone at one point,” but that she had gotten rid of it by the time she vanished. 

“I don't remember if she was using the cell phones that we had bought together, or if she had pay-as-you-go. I'm not sure what it was at that point,” Bill said. 

Did Nancy have a cell phone at the time of her disappearance?

The last known sighting of Nancy Moyer was between 9 and 9:30 p.m. on March 6, 2009, when a Tenino police officer spotted her unloading groceries from her car. The officer was running radar near her home and reported seeing Moyer alone. 

Based on a shopping receipt found inside the house, investigators determined that Moyer had made her purchases at 6:45 p.m., but it is unknown where Moyer went in-between leaving the store and returning home. Did Nancy drive anywhere else after the store, or could she have gone to meet someone?

After Jenna Van Gelderen disappeared from her family’s home in Druid Hills, Georgia, her parents, Leon Van Gelderen and Roseanne Glick, learned that Jenna had a second cell phone outside of their plan. Leon believes Jenna might have acquired the phone to contact a new group of friends, of which he did not approve. 

Multiple texts were sent to Jenna’s second phone shortly before she vanished, but the device “does not record information whatsoever about text messages,” Leon told “Searching For.” Who was contacting Jenna prior to her disappearance — and could she have been using encrypted messaging?

On May 3, 2017, the day she vanished, Akia Eggleston visited a bank in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland, and made a $572 withdrawal from her account, according to authorities. 

“For Akia to withdraw that amount of cash was unusual,” Baltimore Police Department Lt. Terry McLarney told “Searching For.” 

While Eggleston’s friend Cici Diaz claims the money was for a cash deposit on a new place, her family says she made no mention of moving out of her Cherry Hill neighborhood apartment. What was the money for, and was Eggleston planning on moving? 

Young mother Akia Eggleston vanished from the Baltimore in May 2017, and no one has seen or heard from her since.

For case updates and to help us dive into these disappearances, join the Searching For Facebook group.