Payne Lindsey's season-long investigation into two disappearances from Nome, Alaska.
Up and Vanished follows cold cases through interviews, reported sightings, and the uncomfortable space between memory, rumor, and evidence. Its strongest moments come when family members, witnesses, and investigators complicate a timeline that once looked settled.
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Up and Vanished is an investigative narrative true crime podcast from Tenderfoot TV, hosted by Payne Lindsey, with each season devoted to a single missing-persons cold case. The current season investigates the disappearances of Joseph Balderas and Florence Okpealuk from Nome, Alaska, tracking leads such as a disputed truck sighting, a wiped phone, an anonymous tip line, and a live-broadcast polygraph test. Episodes mix formats: scripted narrative recaps of case developments, unedited audio of phone calls and interviews, and occasional panel or interview segments with other investigators. Recurring subjects include the missing individuals' family members and witnesses, along with agencies like the FBI and Alaska State Troopers whose conclusions the families dispute publicly. A consistent theme is the friction between public attention surfacing new leads and the podcast's coverage generating legal threats, harassment claims, and privacy disputes for the people involved. The show doubles as a promotional hub for Tenderfoot TV's wider slate, running trailers and crossover episodes for sister podcasts including Status Untraced (hosted by Liam Luxon), High Strange (Lindsey's UFO-investigation spinoff), and Murder True Crime Stories (with host Carter Roy). Another recurring thread is the craft and ethics of true crime podcasting itself, discussed directly in panel conversations with other independent investigators such as Dennis Cooper and Kyle Tekiela. Main narrative episodes run roughly 25 to 55 minutes, while crossover and promotional episodes are often under 10 minutes. The show suits listeners already invested in the franchise's history, including earlier seasons like the Tara Grinstead case, who want incremental case updates rather than closed-ended stories. Production leans on primary-source audio alongside narration, giving it a more procedural, in-progress feel than fully scripted true crime series.
Made for: True crime listeners who follow long-running cold case investigations across many episodes rather than closed, single-episode stories.
What sets it apart: Each season embeds host Payne Lindsey directly in an active cold case, sourcing raw phone calls and live polygraphs while reporting on the legal and personal fallout the podcast's own coverage creates for families.
Host Payne Lindsey heads to the edge of the arctic circle to investigate two mysterious disappearances from Nome, Alaska. Up and Vanished investigates mysterious cold case disappearances with each new season of the hit true crime franchise. Season 1: The case of missing South Georgia teacher, Tara Grinstead, led to two arrests. Season 2: The disappearance of Kristal Reisinger, a young mother who disappeared from a remote Colorado mountain town. Season 3: The North West Montana disappearance of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, an indigenous woman who went missing from the Blackfeet Nation Indian Reservation. Season 4: The case of missing Alaska Native, Florence Okpealuk and...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Payne Lindsey tests witness accounts while showing how a public investigation can revive leads, distort memories, and affect the people closest to a case.
Up and Vanished builds its investigations from the friction between witness memories, earlier accounts, and evidence that might still be tested. Payne Lindsey presses on conflicting timelines without treating uncertainty as proof.
Conflicting timelines turn you into the juror nobody warned would need a wall chart.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A tense, human look at how suspicion can keep punishing a family after an Alaska missing-persons investigation moves on.
Up and Vanished spends this installment with the collateral damage of an Alaska missing-persons case, where accusation has become its own kind of pressure.
A focused timeline chapter built around a blue truck sighting, conflicting memories, and the limits of witness certainty.
Joseph's disappearance narrows here to the kind of detail that can look minor until the timeline starts to strain: a blue truck moving fast past camp, a missed stop, and different memories of who saw whom that weekend.
A live GrimeCon conversation about the careful, frustrating work behind unresolved true crime cases.
Payne Lindsey, Dennis Cooper, and Kyle Tekiela turn this live GrimeCon conversation toward the work that happens after a case stops drawing attention.
A patient, family-centered opening that makes Aubrey Sacco vivid before the mystery tightens.
Aubrey Sacco's story opens with a clear sense of who she was before she vanished: 23, traveling through Sri Lanka and India, and choosing purpose over polish.
A tense Up and Vanished interview built around abandoned belongings, beach-camp theories, and a host pressing Jon for specifics.
The Truth According To Jon narrows in on one uncomfortable interview: what happened after a woman apparently left a beach camp without her phone, her shoes, or the bedding Jon had made for her. The host keeps pressing on the small things that do not sit right.
A cautious update tests a years-old truck sighting against the messy pull of podcast-shaped memory.
This episode tightens around a witness account that could matter: Joseph's truck allegedly seen on the day he disappeared, with Joseph inside and another man the witness believed was Jake. The hosts do not treat that as solved fact.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
CBC's true crime feed tracing Cleo's case into cold cases across its investigative podcast network.
Journalists chase a decades-long trail through a coronial inquest and Rick Bloom's dozens of aliases.
A New York Times reporter reinvestigates Laramie's unsolved 1985 murder of Shelley Wiley.
Payne Lindsey of Up and Vanished joins Carter Roy on Murder True Crime Stories to examine the 1997 killing of Darmelia Falater, who was stabbed 44 times by her husband Scott in their Phoenix backyard.
This episode of Up and Vanished is primarily a promotional bridge, teasing a forthcoming case update while introducing the host's separate UFO investigation podcast, High Strange.
Payne Lindsey says this episode uses raw phone calls from an anonymous source about Kirk, Bonnie, and the Pascoia family’s reaction to his reporting.
Two once-peripheral witnesses move closer to the center of the story.
The case keeps getting colder.
This episode introduces Up and Vanished Weekly, a new sister series hosted by Payne Lindsey that will spotlight cases like the disappearance of Denise Griffin.
This episode introduces 'High Strange,' an investigative podcast exploring real UFO encounters through interviews with credible witnesses like scientists, military personnel, and pilots.
This episode promotes the Up and Vanished Weekly series, focusing on the murder case of Katie Janness, while also featuring ads for other true crime and UFO podcasts.
This episode of Up and Vanished Weekly focuses on the unresolved case of Elisa Lam, presented as part of a true crime podcast series.
This episode continues the investigation into the Aubrey Sacco missing person case as part of the Status Untraced podcast series.
Aubrey Sacco was 23.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates two mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
Host Payne Lindsey introduces a new season of Up and Vanished investigating two mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, while also promoting his UFO podcast High Strange.
Her phone and shoes are the detail that will not move.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the true crime franchise Up and Vanished.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates a missing person case in Nome, Alaska, tracking down a suspect's contact information.
No one is calling this clean.
Host Payne Lindsey promotes his new TV series while discussing the mission to bring missing loved ones home, highlighting the Daniel Robinson case.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates two mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates two mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
The episode promotes other podcasts before beginning the investigation of two mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of a true crime cold case series.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the true crime franchise Up and Vanished.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of a true crime cold case series.
Host Payne Lindsey promotes other podcasts before introducing a new season investigating mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska.
This episode promotes other podcasts before beginning an investigation into a missing persons case in Nome, Alaska.
Host Payne Lindsey introduces the show and promotes other podcasts before diving into the investigation of two disappearances in Nome, Alaska.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the Up and Vanished true crime franchise.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, with a focus on cold cases.
Host Payne Lindsey investigates mysterious disappearances in Nome, Alaska, as part of the true crime franchise Up and Vanished.