July 4 marked six years since the disappearance of Troy resident Leila Faulkner and her family continues to seek answers. According to media reports and police at the time, Faulkner’s family attended a July 4 barbecue in 2016 and when her parents returned home, the 29-year old mother eventually...
www.troymessenger.com
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July 4 marked six years since the disappearance of Troy resident Leila Faulkner and her family continues to seek answers.
According to media reports and police at the time, Faulkner’s family attended a July 4 barbecue in 2016 and when her parents returned home, the 29-year old mother eventually departed to spend time with friends around 7 p.m. Faulkner never returned home and while it wasn’t unusual for her to stay away from home for a couple of nights, Susan and Rick Faulkner began to grow concerned after not being able to contact their daughter for three days.
Leila Faulkner’s parents checked out tips about their daughter possibly attending a party in Spring Hill on the night of July 4, 2016, but never managed to confirm a sighting of their daughter at the supposed party.
...authorities searched areas where Leila Faulkner was alleged to have been seen on the night she went missing but came up with nothing. The family also enlisted the help of a private investigator but still nothing has been uncovered. Leila Faulkner’s cell phone never “pinged” following her disappearance, she has never made another social media post and her bank accounts were never accessed either...
According to authorities, Leila Faulkner had expressed concern over an ex-boyfriend, Blane Gralheer, in the days leading up to her disappearance, suggesting that if anything happened to her it would be as a result of him.
Those text messages were sent out less than a week before her disappearance. Authorities investigated Gralheer but were unable to find evidence to connect him to Leila Faulkner’s disappearance. Gralheer also took a lie detector test, which came back as “inconclusive.”
Lelia Faulkner, 29, was last seen on July 4, 2016 leaving her parents’ home in Troy, Alabama. The Pike County Sheriff’s Office is investigating her disappearance, but there have been no arrests in the case.
www.nbcnews.com
Also interesting
Susan told Dateline that around 7 p.m. on the fourth, she and her husband were upstairs getting Madison ready for the Independence Day events, when they heard Lelia leave out the front door. Lelia had not planned on going to the Independence Day events that night with her family, so Susan and Rick weren’t concerned when they heard her leave.
"She had left right before we had, but we didn't see the car that picked her up, so we do not know who she left with or if she walked up the road," Susan told Dateline.
Authorities later searched Lelia’s parents’ home, phone records and computers, but Halo Investigations’ Barbara Hastings told Dateline "there was nothing -- absolutely nothing -- that showed she reached out to anyone to pick her up" that night. However, upon searching Lelia’s mother Susan’s phone, authorities found text messages from Lelia to her mother saying she was afraid of her ex-boyfriend, Blane Gralheer. The text messages, Susan told Dateline, also said that if anything happened to Lelia, authorities should investigate Blane. Police confirmed the text messages to Dateline and said they had been sent about six days before Lelia went missing.
Susan also told Dateline that shortly before Lelia’s disappearance,
her daughter had told her she was pregnant by a man other than Blane.
"We believe that one of the arguments between Blane and Lelia was because she was with Blane and ended up getting pregnant by another guy. That’s probably why they had the bad breakup. But I could never get him to tell me that," Lieutenant Johnson told Dateline.
EARLY LIFE: Lelia Marie Faulkner was born on September 26, 1986 to Susan and Rick Faulkner. Growing up in Troy, Alabama, she was a smart and outgoing girl who got straight-As and was named valedict…
storiesoftheunsolved.com
I hope this is allowed.
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INVESTIGATION:
Lelia had gone missing before for days at a time, but had never been gone for this long. She’d last disappeared a year prior. Her family hadn’t reported her missing, but had called the local authorities and asked them to keep an eye out for her. She returned home a few days later.
The missing woman didn’t take her car with her, but her cellphone, purse and tablet were missing. As her vehicle had been left behind, her family couldn’t be sure if someone had picked her up or if she’d walked somewhere and was then picked up.
On the day of Lelia’s disappearance, she and Gralheer had been arguing on Facebook and over text, after she accused him of stealing money from her and leaving her for another man. Gralheer countered, saying their breakup had been mutual and primarily caused by Lelia’s drug use. He also said he wasn’t gay and hadn’t left her for another man.
Gralheer took a polygraph test, but his results were inconclusive. When asked by investigators to take another one, he refused and has not been interviewed since. He also didn’t participate in any of the searches for Lelia. He is currently considered a person of interest in the case. <Is he officially?> While her family do believe he knows what happened to her, they don’t think he was involved. Susan also told
Dateline NBC that the real reason the two broke up was because Lelia had gotten pregnant by another man.
Police searched where Lelia was allegedly seen the night she disappeared, but didn’t believe the claims warranted the use of cadaver dogs. They later searched her parents’ home, as well as her computer and phone records, but found nothing that indicated her plans for that night.
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There are numerous theories floating about regarding what happened to Lelia. One stated she was targeted by a man other than Gralheer, murdered and torched in his truck. Investigators examined the burned out vehicle, but found no evidence that Lelia had ever been inside. Other rumours claimed she was murdered and her body hidden in the woods, and that she’d been buried under one of the fire pits near the party she was allegedly last seen at. Cadaver dogs were taken to the site, but made no indication that human remains were in the area.
Investigators have shared that numerous tips have been called in and followed up on over the course of the investigation. They’ve also spoken with and polygraphed numerous potential persons of interest. At present, there is a $10,000 reward for information leading to Lelia’s whereabouts.
Lelia’s mother believes her daughter is dead, as she would not have abandoned her own child. Believing local authorities haven’t put much effort into the investigation, the family has taken it upon themselves to hire private investigators, raise reward money and put up billboards about the case. One of the billboards was stabbed with two butcher knives, in an event the family believes was someone’s attempt to send a message. Police, on the other hand, say it was likely a random event.
The family has also gotten non-profit
Halos Investigations involved. The organization dedicates itself to combatting exploitation and the trafficking of children.
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