STACY FLAGG: It was a surreal moment. And I kept saying, okay, what do you mean that she's missing? He said, I cannot find her.










WAYNE FLAGG: She's gone.

TANESHA HOWARD: She wasn’t in her room. I checked the whole building. She wasn't there. I'm sorry. I'm getting sick just talking about this.







WAYNE FLAGG: You can see a white Subaru come into frame very slowly.




ANGELA RYE: They assume that they can more easily and readily access a child of color versus a white child.













TANESHA HOWARD: She left her iPad. It was some bad stuff.




KRISTIN PIERCE: That could be your daughter. And you would want someone to care.




WAYNE FLAGG: We were told that an Amber Alert was not possible.




STACY FLAGG: They were unwilling to broadcast anything on their news stations.







LASHUNN QAASIM: I just couldn't believe that this even happening.




NATALIE WILSON: We can't do this work alone. The media needs to get involved. Law enforcement.







TANESHA HOWARD: The police didn't come to my house until several days after I reported her missing.







WAYNE FLAGG: We had been warned that the possibility of her coming home alive had been diminished quite a bit.













TANESHA HOWARD: No, she's not a child. She's a teenager. I said, Well, she's my child.




NATALIE WILSON: We need to provide exposure to these cases.




WAYNE FLAGG: The phone call said we we found her.




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GARCELLE BEAUVAIS: I'm Garcelle Beauvais. Star and executive producer of the Lifetime film Black Girl Missing. As a Mom, the topic of missing children of color is very close to my heart, and I believe this epidemic deserves more attention. You're about to see a documentary that chronicles. Two terrifying real life cases of missing teens, each with a different outcome.

NATALIE WILSON: Can you tell me a little bit more about the person missing in Florida?







GARCELLE BEAUVAIS: The Black and Missing Foundation is at the forefront of advocating for change when it comes to the search for missing people of color.










NATALIE WILSON: We received a call from a mother in Georgia who was desperately searching for her missing daughter, 14 year old Kyla Flagg.







DERRICA WILSON: We learned about Joniah Walker from one of our vigilant followers. They alerted us to her case. Both of these teenage girls were classified as runaways. They're not runaways. They're missing. And we need to find them.










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STACY FLAGG: Kyla is a smart young lady. She loves gardening. She's in orchestra. And she's very observant. She's kind of an introvert. Somewhat. But once you get to know her, she will definitely open up to you. She's very sweet. A very good friend to others. And I just. I just love her personality. I love her smile.



















WAYNE FLAGG:  She's my youngest. She is my baby. She loves to dance. She loves to sing. She loves music. So we have a lot in common. If I had to sum it up, she's a daddy's girl, full of life, vibrant and a jewel.




STACY FLAGG:  I call her my geeky child, so she. She's always loved to read books, she loves to write. And a lot of her words would be beyond her years.













WAYNE FLAGG:  The day that Kyla went missing was a pretty typical Saturday. I picked Kyla up and we went to IHOP for breakfast, and then from there we went home for what would just be a normal Saturday.











GARCELLE BEAUVAIS: In 2021, Stacy and Wayne Flagg are divorced and share custody of daughter Kyla.




WAYNE FLAGG:  I went upstairs after spending some time with Kyla downstairs and started watching TV, and Kyla went to her room to do what teenage girls do playing games, things like that.










STACY FLAGG:  Not only does Kyla like gaming, but with the gaming she was also able to chat with others.




GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  Kyla has been in her room at her father's house for about an hour when she goes upstairs.

WAYNE FLAGG:  She stuck her head into my room and I noticed that she had changed her hair and she asked me. She was like, Do you like my hair? And anybody who saw pictures of her, they know that two big puffs was her signature style at the time. So absolutely, it's beautiful. So she gave me the thumbs up and, you know, walked out of the room, went back to her room.













WAYNE FLAGG:  And I dozed off for about maybe 30 to 45 minutes. She came back to the room, stuck her head in, and she said, I love you. And I said, I love you, too. I didn't think anything of it. Maybe about an hour or so later it was starting to get late. So I was thinking about dinner and I couldn't find her in a room.







WAYNE FLAGG: So I searched both of our guest rooms, downstairs, the backyard and couldn't find her. So then I thought maybe she was playing a game with me. So I checked the closets, checked under beds, checked her brother's room, could not find her.

GARCELLE BEAUVAIS: Kyla does not have a cell phone.

WAYNE FLAGG:  I decided to go outside and thought that maybe she had taken a walk as we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, and it's not uncommon for her to go on walks when I didn't see her on our immediate block. I got into my car and went driving around the neighborhood. When I couldn't find her, I called DeKalb County and told them that my daughter was missing.










WAYNE FLAGG:  And then I called Stacy immediately and I said, Stacy, I can't find Kyla.

STACY FLAGG:  I kept saying, okay, what? What are you talking about? What do you mean that she's missing? He said I cannot find her.



GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  Wayne and Stacy immediately start looking for clues as to what happened.




WAYNE FLAGG:  My first thought was to see if she went out the front door. So we did have a ring camera on the front of the house. And so when I went through the ring footage, you can see a white Subaru. You see it come into frame very slowly and it kind of stops right on the edge of the frame.




WAYNE FLAGG:  And then it kind of speeds up and takes off and it goes off frame. So we could not see Kyla get into the vehicle and we never could see the license plates.

GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  Wayne will later share the video with DeKalb County authorities.

WAYNE FLAGG:  We started in her room, of course, looking for her things and through her things. Immediately we tried to get into the laptop because I purchased it and had set up the passwords on it. I knew how to get into it, but when I went to use my password, it did not work. And then when I tried to reset the password, the reset for the password was asking for 24 bit encryption from Microsoft, which was something that I had not placed on the laptop, didn't know anything about.










WAYNE FLAGG:  It was a very tedious process for us because we were still trying to wrap our mind around the fact that she was gone.




STACY FLAGG:  Nothing prepares you for that. It's kind of like death.

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TANESHA HOWARD:  Her smile is so pretty. She has a very beautiful smile. I just love her softness, her quiet and, you know, just very, like, mature.







GARCELLE BEAUVAIS: In a haunting coincidence, Joniah Alexis Walker is named after a missing child in the family's hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

TANESHA HOWARD: The middle name Alexis. It reminded me of a little girl that went missing in May, some years ago. The family never seen that little girl again. And so I know it hurt a lot of people here. We all want to know what happened to Alexis Patterson. And so, yeah, that was the connection with that name. She was very clingy to me.















TANESHA HOWARD: And so I would say sort of like, Girl, you must have been kidnaped in your past life. I used to always say to her when she's very small. Like, cause you act like you never going to see me again. And that freaked me out that she would act like that when she was real. Like four years old. Because I'm diabetic, right, and so she was my mom I’m gonna make you a salad. She'll run in a kitchen and she'll make me a salad, but then she'll come back. It was like cabbage. Now I would eat it.






















TANESHA HOWARD: Because she made it for me. So she then chopped up the whole cabbage, carrots and all this stuff. And I'm telling you, she was so small and she goes “I hope, I hope it makes you feel better.”




GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  Joniah is a bright and outgoing child until a traumatic event takes place at the age of 11, that affects her profoundly into her teen years.




TANESHA HOWARD:   Joniah, she was dealing with PTSD, anxiety and depression. She was seeing a therapist every week for about two years at this point. And it all stemmed from a sexual assault that happened to her.



GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  The assault is from an adult in her life.

MACKENZIE THOMPSON:  She was dealing with issues and I wasn’t happy about it. And I knew was something off.


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TANESHA HOWARD:  Okay. So I remember that day, June 23. It was the summertime. So of course she's sleeping in late. I had to be work at 8:00. So I went to her room. It was like 740 to tell her I love her and stuff. And I tried to hug her and she kind of like and I thought that was kind of weird. I was like okay girl, have a good day.










TANESHA HOWARD:  You know I love you. She called me on the phone. I was at work and she goes, Mom, why you didn't give me my package that came in the mail yesterday. And I was like, What package? But I didn't get a package. And she was like, Oh. And that was the last conversation I had with her













TANESHA HOWARD:  That day she was supposed to go with her father to get her work permit to continue working at the pizza chateau.




GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  But Joniah's father has been unable to get a hold of his daughter, so he calls Tanisha, who also reaches out to her.




TANESHA HOWARD:  Her phone went to the voicemail. So I'm like, okay, that's not normal. And I left work. I got home a little bit after four and she was in her room. I checked the whole building because I know sometimes she'll go downstairs in the Aerobics Room and she'll work out. She wasn't there. I'm sorry. I'm getting sick just talking about this.










TANESHA HOWARD:  Her dog was there, Her bike was there. So that. Could she be. So I just thought somebody stole her.







GARCELLE BEAUVAIS:  Tanisha contacts her other children, Joniah friends, even the pizza place where she works. No one has seen her.

TANESHA HOWARD: I immediately knew something was wrong.

ANGELA RYE: These young people are not capable of making adult decisions in children's bodies.













STACY FLAGG: They think that they're just run away. So they do not look for us.




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