On Feb. 8, 2002, 42-year-old Brenda Heist was reported missing from Lititz, Pennsylvania. She had dropped her two children off at school as usual that morning, but when they got home, she was nowhere to be found.
At first, the police treated Brenda’s husband, Lee Heist, as a murder suspect. He was ultimately cleared, but the stigma haunted the family, and other parents in the neighborhood wouldn’t let their children play with the Heist kids.
Seven years after Brenda disappeared, Lee had her declared officially deceased. He remarried, and the family moved on as best they could without her…