I spent this past weekend in Dallas (LOVED it may I add) and I have been searching to find something to listen to while on the plane. A few weeks ago, I remembered about a podcast I was told about and I downloaded it to keep me occupied.  

I have never been the type of person to love a podcast.  I always found it hard to get something out of just words and never had the opportunity to really focus on it.  Plus, what in the world would I even want to listen to?

Podcasts were something so foreign to me until a professor from last semester was telling me all about the investigational and crime podcast she was listening to, "Up and Vanished" by Payne Lindsey.

To say I was hooked from the first episode is such an underestimated expression of how much I loved listening to it.  

The podcast was created by a guy named Payne Lindsey who decided one day that he wanted to create a podcast and he figured he would do it on a crime.  He chose to investigate a missing person case and ultimately chose the Tara Grinstead case.

For those of you who do not know about the Tara Grinstead case, she was a small town Georgia peach who taught 11th grade history and competed in pageants (the Miss America Organization for those pageant sisters I have out there reading this).  She competed in a pageant on a Saturday and then that night, went to a family friend's cookout to watch a football game.  Around 11pm that night, she left to go home and she was never seen again.

For ten years, this was a cold case with zero leads and zero suspects.  Just a name of a girl without any idea of what could have happened to her.  Payne brings the case back to the surface and he begins to dig into the story while trying to create a documentary about the case... and he ends up helping solving it.  After twelve years of no answers, he guides you through the phone interviews, reasoning to suspect this person, and the entire court case that follows once they find the answers.  

I have always been a huge fan of criminal psychology and trying to piece together an unsolved crime scene... especially when the only evidence you have is a decade old.  You will begin to come up with your ideas on what happened to her and you will begin to get so hooked on the case that you cannot stop listening to it.  

I highly advise that if you are going to start "Up and Vanished", do not read articles online about the case.  Do not look up Tara Grinstead (no matter how hard it is going to be).  I told myself I would not look it up and it made solving it through the podcast so much more fun.

Best part about it all, it is completely free on the Podcast app on Apple products!  You can download it by just searching "Up and Vanished".  It can get a little confusing on what to listen to since Payne begins doing extra bonuses after every week's episode, but simply just look for the episodes labeled "Season 1 - Episode #".  

I began listening to it while walking to class (shoutout to the Education building being a solid 18 minute walk from my house on campus) and while eating meals.  You could even plug it into your aux cord while driving to work or listen to it in bed.  I finished the series this weekend on the plane while I had all of my friends starting. They all are hooked just like I was and I know you would enjoy it as well. 

If you have any questions about the podcast, where to download it from, or any suggestions on other podcasts I should listen to if you have heard "Up and Vanished" already, send them my way here and I would love to chat with you!