Friend of Missing Phoenix Coldon Says She Saw Her On An Airplane

It has been nearly seven years since 23-year-old Phoenix Coldon backed out of her family’s driveway in December. She was never seen or heard from again.

Or was she?

For years family and friends have pleaded with the public to come forward with any information on Phoenix’s possible whereabouts. Her car was found abandoned in a crime-ridden area of East St. Louis in 2011.

But a friend claims she in fact did see Phoenix after she went missing.

On “The Disappearance of Phoenix Coldon,” airing on Oxygen, Phoenix’s friend, Kellie Fronhert, said she saw the missing young woman on a flight from Las Vegas to St. Louis.

Her story of the encounter is chilling.

"I was already seated on the flight. There were people still boarding. And I looked up, and that's when I saw her. She was with a group of women. She walked right in front of me," Fronhert said. "And I looked at her face. And I said, 'Phoenix?'" 

Fronhert claimed that when she called Phoenix's name, the woman turned to her and said, "Oh, do I look like someone?"

Fronhert replied, "Yes, you do, you look like my friend Phoenix."

Fronhert said the woman kept walking and did not engage with her any further. 

According to Fronhert’s account, Phoenix was boarding with "three of four other woman," all of whom looked a lot like Phoenix. She also claimed there were two men in the group with this group of women who "looked like they could be pro football players."

Fronhert said she would place them around "35 to 40" years old.

When the plane landed, Fronhert went up to a Southwest Airlines counter and said: “I think that I saw a missing person on my airplane." Southwest called the police, searched the airport, but was unable to locate the woman, according to Fronhert.

When asked to rate her confidence level on a scale of 1 to 10 that the woman she saw was indeed Phoenix, she responded with a “9.”

"I'm confident that that was her," Fronhert said.

And Fronhert isn't the only person to claim to have seen Phoenix since she disappeared. Coldon family friend Jeffery Hargrove claims to have seen and talke dto Phoenix twice in downtown St. Louis in the clip above.

One theory about Phoenix Coldon’s disappearance is that she may have been swept up into a sex trafficking ring as her car was found along the 1-70 corridor in East St. Louis, which is known as one of the top sex trafficking corridors in the United States. 

Another is that she vanished on purpose, perhaps to start a new life. 

Given Fronhert's description, there may be more reason to believe Phoenix is still alive.

[Photo provided by Goldia Coldon]