Some disappearances begin with a search. Marci's began with silence.
In 1984, sixteen-year-old Marci Bachmann left home carrying a duffel bag. Her brother never saw her alive again.
Her disappearance should have set off alarms. Instead, days became weeks, weeks became months, and silence took her place.
Years later, Derek made a promise to their grandfather: he would find Marci and bring her home. His search would lead through more than 17,000 unidentified-person cases - and toward a truth no family is prepared to face.
What follows is more than the story of a disappearance. It is a reckoning with childhood abuse, abandonment, accountability, survival, and the terrible cost of silence.
Content note: This memoir addresses childhood abuse, disappearance, homicide, and family trauma.