AL AL - Lelia Faulkner, 29, Troy, 4 July 2016

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Local woman missing
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Lelia Faulkner, 29, walked out of her Pike County home on July 4 and hasn’t been seen or heard from since by family or friends, said her father, Ricky Faulkner.
Faulkner said Lelia had been using an EBT card for help buying food, but hasn’t used it since she disappeared. Her phone goes straight to voicemail and she doesn’t have a driver’s license.
https://www.facebook.com/leliafaulkner1 ~ https://www.facebook.com/lelia.faulkner

Read more at http://www.troymessenger.com/2016/07/29/local-woman-missing/#heVE0j5rozIRDZej.99
 
Vigil Set for Missing Pike County Woman

The family of Lelia Faulkner, say a year ago, the unthinkable happened. 29-year-old Faulkner disappeared leaving behind everything including an 8-year-old daughter.

Signs for Lelia Faulkner are placed throughout Pike County. It’s one way, her family is spreading the word of her disappearance, along with a vigil set for Friday night.
“We’re doing the prayer vigil tonight to bring awareness to bring awareness that there is a young woman missing here in troy and that it’s our daughter. We love her very much and we just want to know where she is, what happened to her,” says Susan Faulkner, mother of Lelia Faulkner.
Since Faulkner’s disappearance there have been no trace of phone calls or activity on her financial accounts. Officers say they are doing everything they can to find answers.

http://www.alabamanews.net/2017/07/21/vigil-set-missing-pike-county-woman/
 
Hmmmm....

She has a sad message on her wall thanking BG for showing her something about being left for a man????


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The mention of the bridge, also. She cannot leave that beautiful child without a mother! Hope she is safe!
 
As Susan and Ricky Faulkner drove past the sign seeking help finding their missing daughter, Lelia, they noticed what appeared to be a long shadow across her face. Looking closer, they realized it was not a shadow, but a knife thrust through the sign right above their daughter’s left eye.
“Whoever did this had stabbed the sign seven or eight different times,” Susan Faulkner said. “One of the knives broke off in the billboard itself and another was lying under the sign.”

http://www.troymessenger.com/2018/03/19/sign-depicting-missing-woman-stabbed/

What a horrible find for them.
 
Lelia Marie Faulkner – The Charley Project

Lelia Marie Faulkner

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Missing Since 07/04/2016
Missing From Troy, Alabama
Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race White
Date of Birth 09/26/1986 (33)
Age 29 years old
Height and Weight 5'6, 125 - 135 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A white tank top, white flip-flops and blue denim shorts.
Medical Conditions Faulkner is an alcoholic, and her family stated she was abusing drugs at the time of her disappearance.
Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue/gray eyes. Faulkner has the following tattoos: Chinese characters meaning "Success" on her foot, the name "Madison" on the inside of her right wrist, and cherries on her lower back. She previously fractured her collarbone on the right side and it healed crookedly. Her ears are pierced. She pronounces her name "Layla."

Details of Disappearance
Faulkner was last seen in Troy, Alabama on July 4, 2016. She had just moved in with her parents after breaking up with her live-in boyfriend. On the day of Faulkner's disappearance, her family went to an Independence Day barbeque and Faulkner stayed home.

She was still home when her parents arrived home that evening; they last spoke to her at 5:30 p.m., and she made a post to her Facebook account from her parents' IP address around at the same time. She has never been heard from again.

Faulkner didn't take a vehicle with her, but her purse, cellular phone and tablet device disappeared with her. Her family isn't sure if someone picked her up at the house or if she went for a walk and someone picked her up while she was away. She had dropped out of sight before for days at a time, but she's never been gone for this long.

Although Faulkner had regularly posted on her social media accounts, all of them have been inactive since that last Facebook post at 5:30 p.m. on the day of her disappearance. She hasn't accessed her bank accounts either, or used her credit cards or cellular phone.

Two days prior to her disappearance, Faulkner and her live-in boyfriend, Blane Gralheer Jr., broke up and she moved back in with her parents. She had told her parents she was afraid of Gralheer and that "if something happens to me it's him."

Gralheer and Faulkner were fighting with each other on Facebook on the day of her disappearance. She posted to her page accusing him of stealing money from her, and wrote that he had left her for another man. Gralheer said their breakup was mutual and largely caused by Faulkner's substance abuse issues, and that he is not gay and was did not leave Faulkner for a man.

He took a polygraph about her disappearance, and the results were inconclusive. Police asked him to take a second polygraph, and he refused. He does remain in regular contact with Faulkner's parents.

Faulkner's mother believes she's no longer alive, as she doesn't think she would have abandoned her child. Gralheer is considered a person of interest in her case, and her parents believe he knows what happened to her even if he wasn't necessarily involved. Her disappearance remains unsolved.
 
I wonder if they did the DNA from the knives. The one who did this must have had some strong feelings about her/her missing case.

ETA

I found this.


Pike County investigators say the billboard stabbings appear to be unrelated to the Lelia Faulkner case, but they also added anything could change. It's still early in the investigation. The other knife was found among the weeds below the sign on the ground.

Detectives recovered both 12-inch knives and dusted for fingerprints. So far, those prints are inconclusive because of smudge on the handles. Authorities are wondering who might carry knives like these.

"It's something no one carries on them, what I call butcher knives," said Pike County Sheriff's Department Lt. Troy Johnson.

Lt. Johnson says they think they have an idea who did this but declined to elaborate until they get more facts in the case.
 
Last edited:

<snipped for focus on timeline>

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.”


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.

I hope this is allowed.

<....>​

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.

<....>

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.

<....>
 
Nov 17, 2022




July 7, 2022

 

TROY, Ala. (WSFA) - There is a new twist in a missing person case out of Pike County. The father of the missing woman is behind bars, but on charges that investigators say are unrelated to her disappearance.

*****
His daughter Lelia Faulkner disappeared in 2016, and the case remains unsolved to this day. Pike County Sheriff Russell Thomas did not say if he believes this arrest will bring any closure in that case.

“This case, along with other cases, remain under investigation as it relates to Ricky Faulkner,” said Thomas.

*******
More at link.
 

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