Phoenix Coldon left home in a hurry, without saying goodbye to anyone. Three hours later, her car was found abandoned in a run-down part of town.
Around 5.30 pm on the afternoon of December 18th, 2011, police officer Kendall Perry responded to a report of a black Chevrolet Blazer abandoned on St Clair Avenue, East St Louis. This wasn’t unusual given the neighborhood’s drug and crime problems. After searching the car, he assumed that the driver had simply abandoned the vehicle, and had the car towed away.
Meanwhile in St Louis, just a 25-minute drive away, Gloria and Lawrence Coldon, the owners of the car, were enjoying a regular Sunday, unaware that within 24 hours, their lives were about to be thrown into unimaginable turmoil as they discovered their only daughter Phoenix had gone missing.
The Coldon Family
Gloria and Lawrence Coldon lived in Spanish Lake, St Louis. They had a 23-year-old daughter Phoenix who was attending the University of Missouri. They were a religious family that took pride in living a quiet, sheltered life centered around church and home, and Gloria had even home-schooled her daughter since the 5th grade.
Phoenix was accomplished at most everything she did, doing well academically and was also a skilled musician and a local fencing champion.
She had been living in an apartment to be closer to the university, but in June of 2011, her parents told her they could no longer afford to finance her, so she would have to move back home.
Returning to the family home, with all the rules and expectations that entailed, was very different from what an independent Phoenix had become accustomed to.
Friends have said that she found living with her parents stifling, and it was causing her to clash with Gloria especially.
Gloria has stated that she expected Phoenix to have high standards in how she presented herself and who she mixed with, and as a result, Phoenix kept many of her relationships hidden.
The Day of Phoenix’s Disappearance
December 18th, 2011:
That morning around 11 am, Gloria and Phoenix went to church a little early, as Phoenix had handbell choir practice before the service.
Talking to the Missing Podcast, Gloria recalls that Phoenix spoke on the phone briefly to someone, just before they drove home. She recalls that Phoenix was distracted and she told her off for driving a little crazy. They stopped at the store to buy some lunch and were home by 2.00 pm.
Around 2.30 pm Lawrence noticed Phoenix leaving but unusually she didn’t look at him or say goodbye. This was the last verified sighting of her.
Phoenix’s 1.00 a.m. curfew came and went.
By the next morning when she still wasn’t home, Gloria and Lawrence were convinced something was wrong. They called the police over to the house, but as is often the case, the attending officer said Phoenix was an adult and could stay out if she wanted. To placate Gloria he ran the plates of the car but they came back clear.
Many Secrets
After Phoenix’s disappearance, it was discovered that she had been keeping secrets from her family.
Most striking was that she had a boyfriend, Michael D, with whom she had shared her apartment whilst away at university. They had broken up, but, she was still communicating with him on a regular basis.
The police discovered she also had a secret burner phone, where she was talking with another man named Mike.
The Oxygen show interviewed Mike’s ex-girlfriend who had taken out a restraining order against him due to a violent incident.
She also claimed that he had been researching Phoenix’s case obsessively, and when she questioned him about it he said “Why are you worrying about someone who’s dead”.
It was discovered that Phoenix had failed to enroll in classes for the fall term, unbeknownst to everyone close to her who believed she was continuing with her studies.
Akira, Phoenix’s long-term friend and neighbor has said that she felt Phoenix went through a dramatic personality change in the last few months before her disappearance. She almost didn’t recognize her as the friend she knew since childhood.
Akira has suggested that Phoenix may have been experimenting with drugs, and was possibly showing signs of paranoia.
A selfie video was found in Phoenix’s car, where she appears unhappy and distressed. She talks about ‘being ditched’ and ‘wanting to start over’, and recites a modified version of the serenity prayer, where she talks about accepting things that she can’t change.
The search for Phoenix
As days went by without a word from their daughter, Gloria and Lawrence had no choice but to start to investigate themselves. They called hospitals, distributed flyers, and spoke to neighbors, but made no headway.
Almost 2 weeks had passed when Gloria received a call from a friend. He said he had located the car in a tow yard in east St Louis.
There was no communication between the police in East St Louis, Illinois, where the car was found, and the police in St Louis, Missouri, where the missing person’s report was made, as the police departments were in different states.
The car was finally processed and the police began a more intensive investigation although valuable time had been lost.
People close to Phoenix were contacted, and Michael B, Phoenix’s ex-boyfriend was interviewed and cleared. He had spoken to her many times in the days leading up to the disappearance, and of particular interest to the police, was a call made the day before she went missing which lasted for 117 minutes.
Crucially, he was the last know person she had tried to get in touch with but all calls between them ceased immediately after she disappeared.
The police however have said he was the most open and forthcoming person they interviewed and they do not believe he harmed Phoenix.
What happened to Phoenix?
There are three main theories discussed by investigators.
Foul play:
Phoenix’s car was found abandoned but the police carried out a forensic search and found nothing suspicious. There were three sets of prints all belonging to the Colden family and no one else.
There is no evidence of a struggle taking place in or around the car.
Akira has said that Phoenix told her she felt like she was being watched in the weeks before she went missing, but, there are no other witnesses to back this up.
There has been no activity on Phoenix’s bank card, social security, internet, or phone since the day she left.
Human trafficking:
According to the FBI, St Louis is in the top 20 US states for human trafficking. Interstate 70, close to where the car was abandoned has been called the sex trafficking super highway, as traffickers can move people easily from the poor St Louis neighborhoods to the run down motels that line its route.
Although Phoenix may not be a typical victim of sex trafficking in that she had a stable home and family support, she was vulnerable and has been described as naïve due to her sheltered life. Often people with this type of background may be ashamed to contact family or friends after being duped into sex work.
Missouri Still a Hotspot For Human Trafficking
The descent into slavery began with a friendship. Jessica Luebbert, a Jefferson City native, worked as a bartender and…
makehumantraffickinghistory.org
Left voluntarily:
Phoenix talked about getting away and starting again on the video selfie found in her car and her best friend Akira claims she talked repeatedly about leaving.
Steve Foster, a private detective who was hired by Gloria and Lawrence, discovered that Phoenix had cashed $2,500 in bonds, which were kept in the family safe.
Also in the safe was a birth certificate for Phoenix with her mother’s maiden name Reeves. Gloria married Lawrence when Phoenix was a toddler and they both changed their name to Colden.
During an Oxygen special investigating Phoenix’s disappearance, retired detective Joe Delia had the name Phoenix Reeves entered into a database. It turned out there were only four individuals in the country with this name.
He was able to rule out three of them but found that from January to June 2012 (a month after Phoenix vanished), someone had used the name Phoenix Reeves, connected to an address in Anchorage, Alaska.
What was strange was there was no date of birth or social security number attached to this name. On investigation, Joe found the long-term occupant of that address knew nothing about Phoenix.
Further Developments
There have been a couple of alleged sightings of Phoenix.
One was in 2014 when a family friend, Jeff Hargrove, believed he met Phoenix in a convenience store in East St Louis. He tried to engage in conversation but said she was distant and unwilling to talk.
That same year, a church friend of Phoenix’s, Kelly Fronhert, was on a plane back from Vegas heading to St Louis when she saw a woman exactly like Phoenix. She called out her name and the woman turned to her but said “Have you mistaken me for someone else”. Kelly told her, “Yes, my friend Phoenix”, but the woman just walked on. She was traveling with three other glamorous young African American women and two older men. Kelly informed the airport staff when she got off the plane, and there was a police search, but the group was never traced.
There have been no new leads since these possible sightings. The case is still open and anyone with information should contact St Louis Police Department.
If you have any thoughts on this case, I would love to read them in the comments.
Sources:
The Charlie Project: Phoenix Lucielle Coldon
The Missing Podcast: Phoenix’s Mum Goldie
The Oxygen Special: The disappearance of Phoenix Coldon
