KS KS - Jennifer Lancaster, 20, Sidney, 1, & Monique Smith, 1 mo, Topeka, 12 May 2000

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Jennifer Lancaster
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/382/5/

City Topeka
State Kansas
Zip code
County Shawnee
Circumstances
Unknown. Jennifer left her residence at approximately at 8pm on May 12, 2000 to go to a male acquaintance's home and never arrived. Her vehicle was found abandoned in an apartment complex.

Her older daughter Sidney Kieara Smith (1 year old at time of disappearance): https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/show/11470

Her baby daughter Monique Rae Smith (1 month at time of disappearance): https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/show/11471

Just stumbled on Jennifer's file in NamUs and was trying to pull up info about her when I found that her two daughters are also missing....though this info is left out of her file. :banghead:
I can't find any news articles or anything about this woman and her babies. Did anybody even search for these babies??
So sad ....Where is Jennifer and her little ones Sidney and Monique???

*also noted that she is listed as white whereas her girls are listed as african american.....
 
It's just bizarre to me that a young woman and her 2 infant daughters are missing and there's absolutely NO information about them. I can't even find any newspaper coverage? I'm not being judgmental when I say this because I obviously don't know the background information, but I really expected to see family, friends, former classmates, SOMEONE putting information out there - even just a facebook page. From the digging I've done, it looks like the place she was last seen departing from was her parents' house (possibly where she lived as well?) which leads me to believe she was still in contact with her family. But we don't even have pictures of one of the little girls.
 
So I'm new to all of this (in terms of actually doing research on my own). What does one do in situations such as this?
There are multiple sites listing Jennifer's case file, all with varying degrees of missing or inaccurate information.

Some sites say she was 18, some say 20. Some mention her daughters, some don't. There seems to be only one picture of Jennifer; sometimes you see a picture of Monique but none of Keira.

I know she has family that still regularly posts memorials to the girls on their facebook pages, so I know they still care and still want to find them. There seems to be at least one additional picture of Jennifer as well as a picture of Keira.

Contacting the family seems awful and intrusive and I really don't think I'd be comfortable with it, but at the same time there are so many gaps that could easily be filled in. These girls seem to have a huge, close-knit family that misses and loves them very much.

It also feels like this is a story/cold case that news agencies would devour if they were aware of it, but I can't see where it ever made the news, even back then. In a town no bigger than Topeka, any coverage at all would surely have some sort of impact?
 
Quick update, I've spoken with a few friends of the family and they saw the family did go on the news after her disappearance. They have really struggled over these last 17 years, especially the mother, but I think they are in a better place now. There is still a detective on the case and SSN usage is checked yearly.

Apparently there was some negative feedback in the media and internet about the case? Which might explain the family not using the internet as a resource. She also apparently worked at a nightclub so perhaps that fed some rumors? I dunno. A sad situation all around.
 
Blackboots - THANK YOU for looking more in to this! I wonder if the negative feedback was more-or-less writing her off for working in a nightclub and being in an interracial relationship? Even if people are silly enough to think like that, I can't believe people would just write off her baby girls.

17 years is a long time and even small-town Midwestern mentalities change - I wonder if they'd be willing to try raising awareness again thorough the internet, podcasts, etc.
 
me and a few others have noted that KS tends to drop ball on cases involving several babies and infants.

Blackboots - THANK YOU for looking more in to this! I wonder if the negative feedback was more-or-less writing her off for working in a nightclub and being in an interracial relationship? Even if people are silly enough to think like that, I can't believe people would just write off her baby girls.

17 years is a long time and even small-town Midwestern mentalities change - I wonder if they'd be willing to try raising awareness again thorough the internet, podcasts, etc.
 
Updated link: Jennifer Dawn Lancaster – The Charley Project
jennifer_dawn_lancaster_1.jpg
Lancaster was last seen in Topeka, Kansas on May 12, 2000. She and her two baby daughters, Sidney Smith and Monique Smith, left home at approximately 8:00 p.m. to go to a male acquaintance's home. They never arrived and none of them have ever been heard from again.

Lancaster's vehicle was found abandoned at an apartment complex a week later. No one in the family has ever been heard from again; few details are available in their cases.

Monique Rae Smith – The Charley Project
monique_rae_smith_1.jpg monique_rae_smith_2.jpg
Monique, circa 2000 and Age-progression to age 16 (circa 2016)

Sidney Keara Smith – The Charley Project
sidney_keara_smith_1.jpg sidney_keara_smith_2.jpg
Sidney, circa 2000 and Age-progression to age 18 (circa 2017)
 
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It hurts my heart that there seems to be so little information about this young woman and her two babies. How do three people vanish without a trace, with nothing but an abandoned vehicle left behind?

Bumping for Jennifer, Sidney, and Monique. Hoping they are somewhere safe.
 
Was John Robinson caught yet before this happen? He killed Lisa Stasi and then abducted her baby and gave her to his brother. So I’m curious on that
 
Article published 5 days ago, Jennifer and her two infant daughters are mentioned. This is such a sad case, I wish there was more media interest in the disappearance of this family.

Missing persons from Topeka area among those listed on KBI website

Social media today quickly gets the word out about such situations as the May 2000 disappearance of 20-year-old Jennifer Lancaster and her two daughters — Sidney Smith, almost 14 months old, and Monique Smith, 1 month old.

But the founding of Facebook was still nearly four years away when Lancaster and her daughters failed to arrive at the home of a male friend after leaving their Topeka home. Their vehicle was found in an apartment complex parking lot.

The three remain missing, said Patrick McLaughlin, cold case investigator for the Shawnee County district attorney's office.

"They may have left voluntarily, but extensive searches of nationwide databases have turned up nothing on any of them over the last 20-plus years," McLaughlin said.

Images were created recently showing how Sidney and Monique Smith might look today.

Lancaster and her daughters are among those listed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation as still being missing after having disappeared from Shawnee County.

Their family declined to be interviewed for this article, McLaughlin said.
 
I just found out about this case, and my mind is blown that there is so little information. I want to do an episode, so if anyone in or around Topeka can help gather local info, it would be greatly appreciated!
 
Jennifer's Charley Project page, with updated details from the article.


1681209874005.png

Details of Disappearance

Jennifer was last seen in Topeka, Kansas on May 12, 2000. She and her two baby daughters, Sidney Smith and Monique Smith, left home at approximately 8:00 p.m. to go to a male acquaintance's home. They never arrived and none of them have ever been heard from again.

Jennifer's 1994 Jeep Cherokee was found abandoned in the parking lot of a small apartment complex in the 3000 block of Southeast Swygart, just southeast of Southeast 29th and California Avenue. All personal belongings had been removed from the vehicle, including both infant car seats and the car keys. No one in the family has ever been heard from again.
Jennifer grew up in the Highland Park area of Topeka. At the time the trio vanished, they lived with Jennifer's mother and seventeen-year-old sister at Misty Glen Apartments in the 3200 block of Southwest Randolph Avenue. They had moved there earlier in the spring of 2000.

Jennifer is a graduate of Topeka West High School. According to her mother, Vicki Lancaster, she "got in with the wrong crowd" and "got into trouble" during high school. While she was pregnant with Monique, Jennifer worked at Remington's, a local bar, then took a job at Baby Doll's, an adult entertainment club. She had a boyfriend, who was the father of at least one of her daughters.

Vicki saw her on the day of her disappearance and said Jennifer left their apartment at 8:00 p.m., carrying a trash bag containing quilts and baby clothes and saying she was taking them to get laundered. This confused Vicki, since there was a washing machine and dryer at their apartment.

After Jennifer and her children disappeared, Vicki noticed a lot of other items were missing; she believes Jennifer had been surreptitiously removing her belongings for some time. She did leave her cellular phone behind. It was on a plan Vicki maintained, and Jennifer had not made any calls on it the week she went missing. She had no credit cards, and little money in her checking account. She left behind her last paycheck from Remington's.

A few weeks after Jennifer and the children were last seen, Vicki got a mailing from a Steak and Shake restaurant in St. Louis, Missouri. It was addressed to Jennifer and thanked her for filling out a comment card about the food and service it had provided. Vicki contacted the restaurant to ask to see the comment card, as she thought she could recognize her daughter's writing. The card had been destroyed by then, however.

Sidney's biological father is still in Topeka and has been interviewed by police about the disappearances. The paternity of Monique is uncertain. Police described Jennifer as a responsible mother who wouldn't have harmed her children and stated there was no hard evidence of foul play in the case, but noted it was strange that Jennifer never got in touch with her loved ones again.

The circumstances of the family's disappearances are unclear and their cases remain unsolved.
 
I just found out about this after seeing updates on The Charley Project. I find it difficult to believe that she would still be alive as there would bound to be some sign she showed up somewhere. While persons disappear voluntarily it is not all that easy to pull it off this day in age without leaving some trail.
 

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