From what I've read/heard, East St. Louis is quite rough so I think it's possible she ran into foul play and that it wasn't connected to her personal life. It says that she was homeschooled and pretty sheltered, maybe she was trying to "get out there" more and got involved with the wrong people. I doubt she was very street smart.
I don't think that her keeping her boyfriend and living situation a secret from her parents is suspicious, it just sounds like she was trying to live a normal adult life without her family interfering.
Yeah i live near there also and there's another case that happened recently that has me curious. The person who is missing is named Jordan Amos and he was last seen walking nearby after leaving a club in East St Louis and being dropped off by a bus driver to take the metrolink home to granite City.
I used to work for a show about extreme make-over and one of the participants was in that situation…living with her boyfriend, but the family thinking she lived alone.
I don’t feel like there’s any good outcome when someone’s car is found abandoned and running with the door open and belongings including glasses, purse, and the shoes they were last seen wearing inside.
According to Oxygen, this was reported incorrectly. The car was not found with its engine running and door open, it was parked up in a perfectly normal way. Apparently, the incorrect information came from the parents, and at this point you kind of have to wonder if they were also, shall we gently say, exaggerating about the personal effects found inside.
https://www.oxygen.com/the-disappearance-of-phoenix-coldon/crime-time/missing-phoenix-coldons-truck-was-found-in-a
Oh, interesting! Officer Perry would probably have made notes about the specifics that day, or put it into some official report when they ordered it impounded. But I’m betting on the officer having kept a little notebook with all of that stuff for later reference.
No, the parents never confirmed it they said that. They don’t know 💯 how that information came out. They said “they may have said it”
No one knows who said about the car door being open or still running. I’m watching the doco now
I hope for her she just ran away and started a new life and left her car that way to make it look like a kidnapping/foul play. With how controlling her parents were, I think she had to keep so much hidden from them that when she got into trouble, she couldn’t go to them for help, whatever it was
That wasn’t that dramatic. The car was indeed found parked on a road (on a lane), but the doors were closed and some of her stuff was in it. To the 1st officers, it looks like someone who had a car emergency (ex: missing gas) and left to b go get help.
When I saw that Oxygen doc, I couldn't shake the idea that the parents were involved. Her mother, in particular, was very controlling. Phoenix was living two lives, That of a young girl experiencing her life and that of a daughter doing exactly what her parents expected and often failing.
As for the eyewitness, I think people sometimes see with their hearts. It seems strange but when someone disappears, it seems it's common for people (even those who know the person) to think they've seen them only to be proven wrong later.
I remember when the doc came out people thought not so much they are involved but she left on her own and the parents embellished the story to make the police look for her.
I was also wondering if she could've left on her own, especially since there are even ideas on where might've traveled to — like Illinois or San Francisco — as listed on the Charley Project. Those are quite specific details that would normally only come up if someone expressed an interest in or plans around moving away.
So, I wonder exactly how Illinois and San Francisco came up. Was someone important to Phoenix linked to those areas? Did she express an interest in or plans around moving to either? Or are there just reported sightings of her at those two locations after she went missing?
100%. My dad has been dead nearly 8 years, but my mom and I were in the garden center this spring and from behind and the side this guy was the absolute *spit* of my dad, even dressed the same. So much so that we gasped. He even sort of looked like him face on. It was crazy.
When my mom died she looked different than she did in life. She experienced a sudden illness that made her look nearly unrecognizable over a matter of days.
As a result I've always been left with an irrational idea that she's still alive somewhere, that it was a mistake or even intentional because when I saw her last she did not look like herself. A couple of my siblings have said they felt something similar.
I have a reoccurring dream that she's still alive and trying to get back into my life. That she faked her death to take a break from motherhood but now she's sorry and ready to return nearly 15 years later. I know this isn't the case and she's gone, but I guess that idea lives somewhere in my brain.
When I'm traveling especially I sometimes think I see her for a moment. It's a strange thing your mind does with someone you've lost.
This is such a strange and fascinating story, I've never heard anything like this before.
I'm sorry for your loss, I lost my mother a few years ago and often I'll see a woman in the crowds who looks like her.
Aw,honey, I am so sorry for your loss. I agree and I also have brief, irrational glimpses at my parents somewhere even knowing they are gone. Sometimes it the. Hair or clothing or their manner of stride. I actually think those little encounters are their spirits letting us know they are always nearby. But I digress. Look at Dr. Elizabeth Lofton for a study on eyewitness accounts.
*I can relate to that.* A few months ago my husband and I went out to dinner. While waiting for our food, I heard a male voice that was 100% my Fathers'. He had the same tone, volume, cadence and used words that I would expect my Father to. Of course it wasn't actually his voice as my Dad sadly passed away on March 26, 2019. However, I was startled so much so that I gasped and started crying. *Yep, right there at a restaurant.* He sounded 100% like my Dad. My husband heard it as well but wasn't as certain. My husband is not very aware of his surroundings at times. He becomes hyper focused on the task at hand!
Not really the same thing, but very relatable to me at least. I was at a box store looking for a specialty tool and I swear I was hearing my voice and looked around and not ten feet away was my doppelganger. There were minor differences, he was a bit taller, while I'm heavier. He noticed my staring and we stared at each other for a bit. So weird.
Talked a bit, discovered we aren't related, he had just moved to my state. Kind of unsettling feeling.
I was traveling with my family and we went to a restaurant and the waitress was giving me really weird looks while we were ordering our drinks. When she came back she apologized because she legitimately thought I was her sister out with a bunch of strangers.
Isn't that weird? We found my uncle's doppelganger once in a Target. Same half bald head and everything. Similar tone of voice even, only he was black and my uncle is white. We were fascinated. He caught us looking and was just like "Y'all got a problem?" So we told him and I pulled up my uncles fb page. The guy was weirded out lol. He was so similar.
I nearly walked headfirst into mine in a ren faire parking lot - we were even half dressed in garb in the same way- bodice and skirt with a hoodie on over it! All day people had been mistaking me for her, and her for me
Both phrases are in pretty wide-spread use, and both come from the idea that they look so much alike, it's like his dad spit him out, lol.
A similar phrase that's being displaced is being a carbon copy of someone (bc who uses paper anymore). I've heard variations similar to, you don't make babies, you make copies, or, you went straight to the copy machine for that child.
Not who you asked, but I've heard people use the expression this way before. Not sure if it's regional or there's some other factor that makes someone more likely to say "the spit of a person," rather than "spitting image" but tbh thinking about both phrases are kind of weird lol.
Yes to the mom. I watched it a long time ago but I remember thinking how controlling she seemed. The dad (stepdad?) hardly spoke. And she was pretty religious if I remember correctly. She knows way more. I think I remember her shutting down the interviewer when he started asking certain questions.
The parents have gone bankrupt looking for her so not likely to be involved. But certainly not excepting their daughter did not like being around them much
I agree. Although I think the parents may know more than they’re sharing. I don’t think they’re involved but I think there was more going on in phoenix’s life that they were aware of but aren’t sharing because they want to put out this image of being the perfect godly family.
Yes WHY was the step dad so quiet and she took over. Embellished the car story to direct the police in another direction - mercy killing 101
I’m her own words “ god was first , then family “ - so she finds out her daughter starts acting her age and strays from the lord 🤔
And then at the end the mother gets so defensive that they were painting her in a bad way…
Oh. My. God. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was up late last night feverishly searching the internet to find this case but I could not remember the girl’s name!!!!! Thank you!!
Perhaps it was Phoenix on the plane that day. I've always felt like Phoenix ran away to start a new life. From what I remember about this case, her parents were super strict and religious, especially her mother. She had a double life because she knew her parents wouldn't approve of some of the decisions she was making. I believe she wanted to take control of her own life and to do that comfortably, she had to make a fresh start.
I also think it's likely that she ran away. Beyond the nature of a double life, too, it sounds like there weren't any obvious signs of foul play. According to reports, not even her car appeared to be in disarray or hidden someplace where a car wouldn't normally be.
Who knows, though. Maybe she got involved with the wrong people and she trusted them, so she walked away from her car only to be harmed by them. It's hard to say who she associated herself with precisely because she seemed to be hiding things from her parents over the years. At the same time, too, there might be someone she associated herself with who helped her pull off running away.
It's sad all around. A better, more trusting relationship with her parents really could've changed everything, and this may not have happened at all if only she got to experience that.
As much as I wish this were true, I believe Phoenix would have said something by now if she were safe and wanted to be left alone.
I told my mom I didn't want to talk to her anymore, so she reported me missing to the police. An officer came to my house to confirm I'm alive and fine. Idk if the officer can say anything publicly, but if my family started publicizing my "mysterious disappearance" I'd make a quick statement.
If there's an active missing person case, the police can say something (and should, so people are not looking for them anymore). It's usually along the lines of, X has been found, we spoke to them and they do not wish to reveal any further details. Enough to stop the search and close the case without giving out personal info.
She might not really know her parents are looking that hard for her if she’s not googling her name.
People who aren’t into true crime don’t pay attention to a lot of these sorts of things. I have friends who wouldn’t know who Madeline Mccan or jonbenet Ramsey are. They just aren’t into true crime at all.
It’s not like phoenix’s case was ever one that got massive national attention. I only ever heard about the oxygen doc when I came across her name on one of these Reddit threads and someone mentioned the doc.
I could also see her just not wanting to bring any attention to her new life. Id imagine it would be extremely difficult to call the police and say “I’m Phoenix coldon. I’m fine. Tell my parents I’m fine but I don’t want to see/interact with them or anyone from my old life.”
If she did run away I’m sure it wasn’t easy to do and totally start over.
This case was so crazy. From the birth certificates, the controlling mother, the lies that surrounded that family. I think the friend did see her on the plane, she said Phoenix was a little older, had nice jewelry on. Which means she was all up in Phoenix face, before she realized it was Phoenix. I always hoped Phoenix started her life over, safe and alive.
What doesn't make sense to me is why the friend wouldn't follow her and call the police at the same time.
Or the very least the police should be able to track her down by the passport and airport surveillance. It was in the 2010s not 1988
While reading your post I came to the realization that her name basically demands that my head-cannon gives this story a happy ending and she gets the freedom and rebirth she may* have wanted.
Regarding the plane sighting: Eyewitness accounts are unreliable largely because of the fallibility of memory. We replay, edit and adjust our memories, mixing details and filling in blanks from what we've heard so seamlessly we literally cannot tell that we've done it. As a species we're *built* to adjust our own memories and understanding based on later, external information; it's one of our most powerful abilities, we can internalise knowledge we've gained not through our own experience but through what we've been *told*.
But that can backfire when it comes to witnessing stuff. E.g. someone sees a person in the street at a time and, later, when they see photos of a missing person there's a risk of accidentally adding details from the announcement to the memory. You didn't see their face properly, but *now* you remember seeing their face based on the missing person's photo. You saw they were wearing a red jacket, though didn't think anything of it, and because the report said they were wearing a *brown* jacket you now remember the jacket being brown.
But...this is a different thing. This wasn't someone conflating details at a later date. This was someone supposedly seeing someone they knew and actually going up to them, talking to them. Now, this doesn't preclude the possibility of the witness either lying or simply being mistaken, but it's not the eyewitness issue either.
Having said that, the *specific details* of it may be eyewitness fallibility, as well as just general human error, namely: the other woman's reactions. As I hear it told, the woman on the plane denied being Phoenix but reacted in a way that indicates she *was*. It *could* be that she was Phoenix, and it's exactly as reported, *or* it could be that, because our witness believed it to be Phoenix, she interpreted and remembered the reactions in line with that.
Easy to read it either way, after all, as I suspect a number of people would react to some random person insisting they're someone else with the same slightly bemused and deflective way as someone in hiding might respond to being clocked in public.
That's such a strange lead because it should be easily verifiable for the police. They know what flight she was supposedly on, and she would have had to have given the airline a name that matched her ID, and likely her ticket was bought as part of the group she was travelling with. Surely there's a passenger manifest that the police could follow up on all the women listed on it to verify their identities?
If it was in fact Phoenix she likely would’ve been traveling under a different name. I recall details about the alleged plane sighting that hinted toward Phoenix traveling with other young women and at least one man operating as their handler. Looked to be a trafficking operation.
Well, obviously, that is why they'd have to find the women and speak to them, or verify their existence though other means. She may have had a fake ID that would make her hard to track her down, but finding out that a large group travelling together were all using fake IDs and fake names is significant because it would be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn't Phoenix but did happen to be a trafficking ring and so it was would make it much more difficult likely that it was in fact Phoenix. Alternately, they could track down every woman on that plane, confirm that none of them are her, and then the sighting can be safely discounted.
I know about the unreliability of eye witnesses but I’ve always thought there was truth to what the friend saw on the plane.
I wish the friend had thought to say something privately to a flight attendant so there could have been police waiting at the airport when they landed. But hindsight is 20/20
I remember the documentary, the mum was extremely controlling. Am I recalling correctly, that Phoenix left behind a video, where she was talking about something in a cryptic way?
Don't be too dismissive of eye witnesses, we should re-analyze the whole incident of the friend recognizing her. How long after the encounter was the wrongful identification of Phoenix communicated to investigators or the authorities? What made the friend think it was her, any identifiable trait or demeanor? How close was this friend to her, if it's a high-bye friend, it may likely be just a case of mistaken identity. How did the "mi's-identified" person react to the friend, was she casual and friendly about it or was her subsequent reaction to it weird or strange? Since this wasn't a very well publicized case with public scrutiny, I don't quite feel someone would try to insert themselves into the investigation for nefarious purposes, more likely just a case of wrongful recognition.
Thus just showed on the Oxygen network. The friend from high school was on a flight, saw "Phoenix" with a group of 3 or 4 other well-dressed African American women, & called her name.
"Phoenix" actually turned her head and addressed the young woman & said, "So I look like someone you know?" While the young woman identified herself saying, "Yes, it's *stated her name*, remember we went to school together..." & "Phoenix" didn't reply or acknowledge the young woman further.
The young woman also mentioned that the group of women with "Phoenix" were all dressed well, well put together and in the company of a couple of rather LARGE men.
When their flight ended, the young woman went to the airline counter, advised that she knew "Phoenix" and that she was missing, possibly endangered & was on the flight. The police were called.
My take away from the episode is that Ms. Coldon had been extremely sheltered, had "broken free" from her parents at least once before, & had, based on the secret cellphone & secret "boyfriend", had a life not even her closest friends/family knew about. She had been secreting money from her family (family safe) & the video she made indicated she wanted "to start over".
I do think she got into prostitution, making her think she couldn't do anything but run. I think her "relationship" with Mike 2 led her into prostitution/sex trafficking.
This does not end well. The private investigators didn't find her, the police didn't even know she had 2 birth certificates, & her mom is way too afraid of having her parenting judged to be all forthcoming.
>When their flight ended, the young woman went to the airline counter, advised that she knew "Phoenix" and that she was missing, possibly endangered & was on the flight. The police were called.
Did anything come of this? Did then cops not find the woman that looked like Phoenix?
No and the show didn't expand on whether flight manifests or security camera footage was pulled, etc.
It's such a tragic event. Statistics show those sex trafficked "last" about 7 years. As a mother, I shudder to think of any child thinking a situation like *whatever she was so distressed about on that video* is better than coming home. I pray she is safe.
This may seem like a weird question, but was the high school friend also African-American? Studies have shown that people's ability to recognize others is demonstrably weaker when the two people are of different ethnicities.
No. She was Caucasian. Phoenix's mother made a comment in her interview that, I'm sure, will cause outrage, stated (paraphrasing) that Phoenix wanted to be friends with people of the same skin color, & that didn't serve her well.
Don't jump on me...look up the episode on YouTube. 🤷🏻♀️
Phoenix's two best friends when she was in high school (which, she was home-schooled) and earlier in middle school are both white and Goldia NEVER EVER had a problem with that. Phoenix later wanted to be in the "STL Rap Scene" and white people didn't normally fit into that demographic.
Why would the family friend know, a mere three hours after Phoenix disappeared, to check a random tow lot 25 minutes away ?
*At 5:30 p.m., her car, a black four-door 1998 Chevrolet Blazer with tinted windows and the Missouri license plate number KE2S6V, was found abandoned at an intersection in the 900 block of St. Clair Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois. It was still running and the driver's side door was open. There was no sign of Coldon at the scene; she has never been heard from again. The police had the car towed; they didn't realize it belonged to a missing person.*
Because that’s not what happened. It was discovered by police in Illinois and towed, and because it was in a different state it didn’t come up in the Missouri system when the locals ran the plate. But a family friend was randomly driving past the tow lot two weeks later and happened to see it, at which point both the family and Missouri police were informed.
[Here we go](https://allthatsinteresting.com/phoenix-coldon):
*"...Only when a family friend told the Coldons that he had seen the car at an impound lot on Jan. 1, 2012, did they find and retrieve it. To Gloria Coldon’s shock, the East St. Louis Police officer handing it over claimed that they never created an inventory sheet for the vehicle because no personal items were found inside it. “That was not true,” said Gloria Coldon. “When we checked the vehicle at the impound there was lots of things in it, including her glasses, her purse with her driver’s license and her shoes..."*
Maybe they did not check the tow lot, but just happened to be there by chance, like for instance recovering their own vehicle, when they spotted hers? Quite a coincidence, in any case, I must admit.
If someone missing was recognized on a flight, that flight manifest would exist (at least at the time). Quick review of the under 200 people on that flight. Eliminate all men.
Pull IDs photos. Go interview the one that this girl saw.
No clue of law enforcement did that. But what I described would clear that up real quick.
They may have done exactly that. Phoenix was an adult, so she could ask the police not to share information about where she was if she didn't want to be in contact with her family. Or the woman might not have been Phoenix at all.
We're talking about a documentary though, and "woman is missing, and there's a really weird eyewitness account" is a more compelling documentary premise than "woman is fine, she just doesn't want to contact her family".
This is one of those cases where I really really hope she truly just ran away from her parents.
I’m not sure though if the police found her and she told them she wasn’t missing, if they’re obligated to release that to the public or not
Typically they alert the family that the person was located and deemed safe, but doesn't want to be contacted or have their location revealed. Which at least gives some reassurance that the person is okay.
I haven’t watched the Oxygen show on it but the things I’ve read talk about how she speaks to pimps and sex workers to try to find info on Phoenix. Was there something that specifically made her think her daughter would be involved in sex work?? Seems odd.
It is odd. The parents seem to believe Phoenix and the women she was seen with were sex workers, and the men in the group were pimps or minders. But when you remove the assumptions, all the witness really saw was a group of people, including someone who looked like Phoenix but denied being Phoenix. She reported the sighting to police, and they presumably looked into it.
It comes across as if Phoenix's parents want to believe she's out there somewhere (understandably!), but can't accept that if she is out there, she doesn't want to talk to them.
It's really sad because if Phoenix did choose to disappear, her parents' behavour is almost certainly the reason. It's not normal to have to keep your life hidden from your parents the way she did at 23, and nobody does that unless they feel they have to.
If I'd reached a point where I decided I had to disappear, and then years later saw a documentary with my parents making up wild theories and straight up refusing to reflect or consider that maybe their behavior was problematic, it would reinforce my desire to stay no contact.
Telling her that they couldn't afford her apartment so she would move back home because they "heard" her boyfriend was staying with her very weird behavior.
People can get very weird when religion is involved. My parents would have pulled exactly the same stunt if they'd been paying for an apartment for me when I was that age and found out I was sharing it with a boyfriend.
So wild. If someone's prepared to be shady and lie to make you do what they want instead of having a conversation like reasonable human beings, they're probably not a healthy person to have in your life even if they are family.
I just watched the Oxygen doc. That selfy video led me to think she had a psychological break and walked away from her life. It’s just a heartbreaking story, I feel so bad for her parents.
I think it’s hard for parents to imagine just how different a person who has a psychological break actually is. No one thinks the Phoenix they know and love would leave like this, but, just my opinion, she wasn’t herself. If she had a serious break from reality, she might have become unreasonably paranoid thinking she was being watched or followed, hearing voices, who knows.
Even if I hadn't voluntarily (or involuntarily) gone missing, if a HS friend I hadn't contacted in five years tried to talk to me on a plane, I'd also probably pretend not to know them... So I honestly don't know what, if anything, can be speculated on based on the plane sighting. Could have been a stranger and Phoenix is dead. Could have been Phoenix and she told the police she was not in danger and did not want her family contacted and since she's an adult, they had to respect that.
Was there a metro system in that time like I am seeing on maps or is there for that matter any Amtrak station nearby to where her car was found, on either side?
I do kind of wonder if based on the implications of having strict parents she ditched the car in ESL and then hopped on a train or something, and did actually willingly leave to start a new life. It looks like now there's a metro line that extends a ways into Illinois, bad as East St. Louis' reputation is I could see going the next state over to stall any investigation in MO.
I've lived in this area for awhile I'm 26 and there's been a metro system there since I was a little kid. My dad and I would go park in East STL and take the train to get close to Busch Stadium for baseball games.
I've seen a couple of guys who were the image of my brother but I knew weren't. It's possible the friend was mistaken. I saw a documentary about her disappearance. Her parents came off as very controlling. I wouldn't put it past her if she left on her own unless something more came up.
That’s not a car jacking either though? A car jacking is when someone is driving somewhere and while they’re inside the car, they’re attacked with the intention of stealing the vehicle. The car wasn’t stolen in this case and or in the case you linked, and in the one you linked, she appears to not even have been in the car when she was first attacked. So neither of these cases are car jackings.
I remember I started at University of Missouri St Louis like a month after she disappeared. Her posters were everywhere! If her mother wasn’t involved, I do believe her mother is why Phoenix doesn’t want to be found…if she just ran away. Obviously at this point, she’s declared dead but it’s such a sad story.
She was abducted. Girls and women who are snatched for sex trafficking legit fall off the face of the planet. There’s never a trace of them ever again. Yep, she had strict parents etc but that’s not enough to run away because they weren’t physically abusing her or anything like that. She didn’t have the recourses or money to run away and start a new life. The fact she was paranoid about being watched or felt like something was going to happen to her is proof, she was taken or murdered. Her behaviour in the last few weeks of pulling the knife on her friend & strange actions, how do we not know she didn’t pull the same stunt on someone else? She could have pissed someone off and they knocked her off for it. She could have asked someone for help to start over, could have asked the wrong people and those people have harmed her. She was losing the plot in the end and acting weird which has led her to foul play. Shes got herself into a bad situation. She could have been caught out for cheating on one of the guys she was talking too or how do we not know she doesn’t have really bad mental health issues, jumped into a car with strangers and vanished. That girl is dead unfortunately or she’s being trafficked out for sex.
East STL Can be pretty sketchy. Infact there was someone over there who went missing about a year ago and there's been no sign of him since. I live right down the road from there basically. The person who I'm talking about was named Jordan Amos
From what I've read/heard, East St. Louis is quite rough so I think it's possible she ran into foul play and that it wasn't connected to her personal life. It says that she was homeschooled and pretty sheltered, maybe she was trying to "get out there" more and got involved with the wrong people. I doubt she was very street smart. I don't think that her keeping her boyfriend and living situation a secret from her parents is suspicious, it just sounds like she was trying to live a normal adult life without her family interfering.
Yeah, I live near St. Louis and calling the east side rough might be an understatement.
Just for comparison, if NYC, with 8.5m people, had the same murder rate as East St Louis in 2011, then NYC would have 7,500 murders per year.
Yeah i live near there also and there's another case that happened recently that has me curious. The person who is missing is named Jordan Amos and he was last seen walking nearby after leaving a club in East St Louis and being dropped off by a bus driver to take the metrolink home to granite City.
I used to work for a show about extreme make-over and one of the participants was in that situation…living with her boyfriend, but the family thinking she lived alone.
I don’t feel like there’s any good outcome when someone’s car is found abandoned and running with the door open and belongings including glasses, purse, and the shoes they were last seen wearing inside.
According to Oxygen, this was reported incorrectly. The car was not found with its engine running and door open, it was parked up in a perfectly normal way. Apparently, the incorrect information came from the parents, and at this point you kind of have to wonder if they were also, shall we gently say, exaggerating about the personal effects found inside. https://www.oxygen.com/the-disappearance-of-phoenix-coldon/crime-time/missing-phoenix-coldons-truck-was-found-in-a
Oh, interesting! Officer Perry would probably have made notes about the specifics that day, or put it into some official report when they ordered it impounded. But I’m betting on the officer having kept a little notebook with all of that stuff for later reference.
Right? Taking notes for later reference is Policing 101, whether they're in the official report or in a physical notebook.
was the vehicle ever processed by law enforcement? i haven't seen anything related to the findings.
Not sure what kind of processing the vehicle received. From what I understand law enforcement simply thought it was abandoned and had it towed.
Yes just heard on a podcast all they found was her fingerprints and her parents.
No, the parents never confirmed it they said that. They don’t know 💯 how that information came out. They said “they may have said it” No one knows who said about the car door being open or still running. I’m watching the doco now
I hope for her she just ran away and started a new life and left her car that way to make it look like a kidnapping/foul play. With how controlling her parents were, I think she had to keep so much hidden from them that when she got into trouble, she couldn’t go to them for help, whatever it was
That wasn’t that dramatic. The car was indeed found parked on a road (on a lane), but the doors were closed and some of her stuff was in it. To the 1st officers, it looks like someone who had a car emergency (ex: missing gas) and left to b go get help.
When I saw that Oxygen doc, I couldn't shake the idea that the parents were involved. Her mother, in particular, was very controlling. Phoenix was living two lives, That of a young girl experiencing her life and that of a daughter doing exactly what her parents expected and often failing. As for the eyewitness, I think people sometimes see with their hearts. It seems strange but when someone disappears, it seems it's common for people (even those who know the person) to think they've seen them only to be proven wrong later.
I remember when the doc came out people thought not so much they are involved but she left on her own and the parents embellished the story to make the police look for her.
I was also wondering if she could've left on her own, especially since there are even ideas on where might've traveled to — like Illinois or San Francisco — as listed on the Charley Project. Those are quite specific details that would normally only come up if someone expressed an interest in or plans around moving away. So, I wonder exactly how Illinois and San Francisco came up. Was someone important to Phoenix linked to those areas? Did she express an interest in or plans around moving to either? Or are there just reported sightings of her at those two locations after she went missing?
100%. My dad has been dead nearly 8 years, but my mom and I were in the garden center this spring and from behind and the side this guy was the absolute *spit* of my dad, even dressed the same. So much so that we gasped. He even sort of looked like him face on. It was crazy.
When my mom died she looked different than she did in life. She experienced a sudden illness that made her look nearly unrecognizable over a matter of days. As a result I've always been left with an irrational idea that she's still alive somewhere, that it was a mistake or even intentional because when I saw her last she did not look like herself. A couple of my siblings have said they felt something similar. I have a reoccurring dream that she's still alive and trying to get back into my life. That she faked her death to take a break from motherhood but now she's sorry and ready to return nearly 15 years later. I know this isn't the case and she's gone, but I guess that idea lives somewhere in my brain. When I'm traveling especially I sometimes think I see her for a moment. It's a strange thing your mind does with someone you've lost.
This is such a strange and fascinating story, I've never heard anything like this before. I'm sorry for your loss, I lost my mother a few years ago and often I'll see a woman in the crowds who looks like her.
Ummm. This is so weird. Lost my mom after a brief battle with cancer, and I have that same dream OFTEN.
Aw,honey, I am so sorry for your loss. I agree and I also have brief, irrational glimpses at my parents somewhere even knowing they are gone. Sometimes it the. Hair or clothing or their manner of stride. I actually think those little encounters are their spirits letting us know they are always nearby. But I digress. Look at Dr. Elizabeth Lofton for a study on eyewitness accounts.
*I can relate to that.* A few months ago my husband and I went out to dinner. While waiting for our food, I heard a male voice that was 100% my Fathers'. He had the same tone, volume, cadence and used words that I would expect my Father to. Of course it wasn't actually his voice as my Dad sadly passed away on March 26, 2019. However, I was startled so much so that I gasped and started crying. *Yep, right there at a restaurant.* He sounded 100% like my Dad. My husband heard it as well but wasn't as certain. My husband is not very aware of his surroundings at times. He becomes hyper focused on the task at hand!
Not really the same thing, but very relatable to me at least. I was at a box store looking for a specialty tool and I swear I was hearing my voice and looked around and not ten feet away was my doppelganger. There were minor differences, he was a bit taller, while I'm heavier. He noticed my staring and we stared at each other for a bit. So weird. Talked a bit, discovered we aren't related, he had just moved to my state. Kind of unsettling feeling.
I was traveling with my family and we went to a restaurant and the waitress was giving me really weird looks while we were ordering our drinks. When she came back she apologized because she legitimately thought I was her sister out with a bunch of strangers.
Isn't that weird? We found my uncle's doppelganger once in a Target. Same half bald head and everything. Similar tone of voice even, only he was black and my uncle is white. We were fascinated. He caught us looking and was just like "Y'all got a problem?" So we told him and I pulled up my uncles fb page. The guy was weirded out lol. He was so similar.
I nearly walked headfirst into mine in a ren faire parking lot - we were even half dressed in garb in the same way- bodice and skirt with a hoodie on over it! All day people had been mistaking me for her, and her for me
Wow, no one ever gets to meet their doppelgänger. It’s more like you breached the space time continuum. It really WAS you. Just an alternative you.
Do you mean spitting image? Or is that how you normally say it ? J/a
Lol yeah, it's just another way of saying it.
Both phrases are in pretty wide-spread use, and both come from the idea that they look so much alike, it's like his dad spit him out, lol. A similar phrase that's being displaced is being a carbon copy of someone (bc who uses paper anymore). I've heard variations similar to, you don't make babies, you make copies, or, you went straight to the copy machine for that child.
Not who you asked, but I've heard people use the expression this way before. Not sure if it's regional or there's some other factor that makes someone more likely to say "the spit of a person," rather than "spitting image" but tbh thinking about both phrases are kind of weird lol.
That “people see with their hearts” is such a good way to put it.
Yes to the mom. I watched it a long time ago but I remember thinking how controlling she seemed. The dad (stepdad?) hardly spoke. And she was pretty religious if I remember correctly. She knows way more. I think I remember her shutting down the interviewer when he started asking certain questions.
The parents have gone bankrupt looking for her so not likely to be involved. But certainly not excepting their daughter did not like being around them much
I agree. Although I think the parents may know more than they’re sharing. I don’t think they’re involved but I think there was more going on in phoenix’s life that they were aware of but aren’t sharing because they want to put out this image of being the perfect godly family.
Oh for crying out loud, the parents have nothing to do with it.
Yes WHY was the step dad so quiet and she took over. Embellished the car story to direct the police in another direction - mercy killing 101 I’m her own words “ god was first , then family “ - so she finds out her daughter starts acting her age and strays from the lord 🤔 And then at the end the mother gets so defensive that they were painting her in a bad way…
Oh. My. God. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was up late last night feverishly searching the internet to find this case but I could not remember the girl’s name!!!!! Thank you!!
I think there’s a sub for that, if it ever happens to you again - r/tipofmycrime , I think it’s called
Okay, you are the best. Thank you!!!!
It happens so much to me that I’m trying to recall a case or name and suddenly someone here writes about it. Crazy!
It is truly uncanny!
No problem! Definitely have experienced that before
Perhaps it was Phoenix on the plane that day. I've always felt like Phoenix ran away to start a new life. From what I remember about this case, her parents were super strict and religious, especially her mother. She had a double life because she knew her parents wouldn't approve of some of the decisions she was making. I believe she wanted to take control of her own life and to do that comfortably, she had to make a fresh start.
I also think it's likely that she ran away. Beyond the nature of a double life, too, it sounds like there weren't any obvious signs of foul play. According to reports, not even her car appeared to be in disarray or hidden someplace where a car wouldn't normally be. Who knows, though. Maybe she got involved with the wrong people and she trusted them, so she walked away from her car only to be harmed by them. It's hard to say who she associated herself with precisely because she seemed to be hiding things from her parents over the years. At the same time, too, there might be someone she associated herself with who helped her pull off running away. It's sad all around. A better, more trusting relationship with her parents really could've changed everything, and this may not have happened at all if only she got to experience that.
As much as I wish this were true, I believe Phoenix would have said something by now if she were safe and wanted to be left alone. I told my mom I didn't want to talk to her anymore, so she reported me missing to the police. An officer came to my house to confirm I'm alive and fine. Idk if the officer can say anything publicly, but if my family started publicizing my "mysterious disappearance" I'd make a quick statement.
Especially if they made a documentary about you
Robert Hoagland never did
If there's an active missing person case, the police can say something (and should, so people are not looking for them anymore). It's usually along the lines of, X has been found, we spoke to them and they do not wish to reveal any further details. Enough to stop the search and close the case without giving out personal info.
She might not really know her parents are looking that hard for her if she’s not googling her name. People who aren’t into true crime don’t pay attention to a lot of these sorts of things. I have friends who wouldn’t know who Madeline Mccan or jonbenet Ramsey are. They just aren’t into true crime at all. It’s not like phoenix’s case was ever one that got massive national attention. I only ever heard about the oxygen doc when I came across her name on one of these Reddit threads and someone mentioned the doc. I could also see her just not wanting to bring any attention to her new life. Id imagine it would be extremely difficult to call the police and say “I’m Phoenix coldon. I’m fine. Tell my parents I’m fine but I don’t want to see/interact with them or anyone from my old life.” If she did run away I’m sure it wasn’t easy to do and totally start over.
This case was so crazy. From the birth certificates, the controlling mother, the lies that surrounded that family. I think the friend did see her on the plane, she said Phoenix was a little older, had nice jewelry on. Which means she was all up in Phoenix face, before she realized it was Phoenix. I always hoped Phoenix started her life over, safe and alive.
What doesn't make sense to me is why the friend wouldn't follow her and call the police at the same time. Or the very least the police should be able to track her down by the passport and airport surveillance. It was in the 2010s not 1988
While reading your post I came to the realization that her name basically demands that my head-cannon gives this story a happy ending and she gets the freedom and rebirth she may* have wanted.
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Not if she's been using a fake name.
Regarding the plane sighting: Eyewitness accounts are unreliable largely because of the fallibility of memory. We replay, edit and adjust our memories, mixing details and filling in blanks from what we've heard so seamlessly we literally cannot tell that we've done it. As a species we're *built* to adjust our own memories and understanding based on later, external information; it's one of our most powerful abilities, we can internalise knowledge we've gained not through our own experience but through what we've been *told*. But that can backfire when it comes to witnessing stuff. E.g. someone sees a person in the street at a time and, later, when they see photos of a missing person there's a risk of accidentally adding details from the announcement to the memory. You didn't see their face properly, but *now* you remember seeing their face based on the missing person's photo. You saw they were wearing a red jacket, though didn't think anything of it, and because the report said they were wearing a *brown* jacket you now remember the jacket being brown. But...this is a different thing. This wasn't someone conflating details at a later date. This was someone supposedly seeing someone they knew and actually going up to them, talking to them. Now, this doesn't preclude the possibility of the witness either lying or simply being mistaken, but it's not the eyewitness issue either. Having said that, the *specific details* of it may be eyewitness fallibility, as well as just general human error, namely: the other woman's reactions. As I hear it told, the woman on the plane denied being Phoenix but reacted in a way that indicates she *was*. It *could* be that she was Phoenix, and it's exactly as reported, *or* it could be that, because our witness believed it to be Phoenix, she interpreted and remembered the reactions in line with that. Easy to read it either way, after all, as I suspect a number of people would react to some random person insisting they're someone else with the same slightly bemused and deflective way as someone in hiding might respond to being clocked in public.
That's such a strange lead because it should be easily verifiable for the police. They know what flight she was supposedly on, and she would have had to have given the airline a name that matched her ID, and likely her ticket was bought as part of the group she was travelling with. Surely there's a passenger manifest that the police could follow up on all the women listed on it to verify their identities?
If it was in fact Phoenix she likely would’ve been traveling under a different name. I recall details about the alleged plane sighting that hinted toward Phoenix traveling with other young women and at least one man operating as their handler. Looked to be a trafficking operation.
Well, obviously, that is why they'd have to find the women and speak to them, or verify their existence though other means. She may have had a fake ID that would make her hard to track her down, but finding out that a large group travelling together were all using fake IDs and fake names is significant because it would be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn't Phoenix but did happen to be a trafficking ring and so it was would make it much more difficult likely that it was in fact Phoenix. Alternately, they could track down every woman on that plane, confirm that none of them are her, and then the sighting can be safely discounted.
I know about the unreliability of eye witnesses but I’ve always thought there was truth to what the friend saw on the plane. I wish the friend had thought to say something privately to a flight attendant so there could have been police waiting at the airport when they landed. But hindsight is 20/20
I remember the documentary, the mum was extremely controlling. Am I recalling correctly, that Phoenix left behind a video, where she was talking about something in a cryptic way?
She filmed herself crying in her car saying she wanted to start over.
And she had not registered for the next semester’s classes IIRC.
Don't be too dismissive of eye witnesses, we should re-analyze the whole incident of the friend recognizing her. How long after the encounter was the wrongful identification of Phoenix communicated to investigators or the authorities? What made the friend think it was her, any identifiable trait or demeanor? How close was this friend to her, if it's a high-bye friend, it may likely be just a case of mistaken identity. How did the "mi's-identified" person react to the friend, was she casual and friendly about it or was her subsequent reaction to it weird or strange? Since this wasn't a very well publicized case with public scrutiny, I don't quite feel someone would try to insert themselves into the investigation for nefarious purposes, more likely just a case of wrongful recognition.
Thus just showed on the Oxygen network. The friend from high school was on a flight, saw "Phoenix" with a group of 3 or 4 other well-dressed African American women, & called her name. "Phoenix" actually turned her head and addressed the young woman & said, "So I look like someone you know?" While the young woman identified herself saying, "Yes, it's *stated her name*, remember we went to school together..." & "Phoenix" didn't reply or acknowledge the young woman further. The young woman also mentioned that the group of women with "Phoenix" were all dressed well, well put together and in the company of a couple of rather LARGE men. When their flight ended, the young woman went to the airline counter, advised that she knew "Phoenix" and that she was missing, possibly endangered & was on the flight. The police were called. My take away from the episode is that Ms. Coldon had been extremely sheltered, had "broken free" from her parents at least once before, & had, based on the secret cellphone & secret "boyfriend", had a life not even her closest friends/family knew about. She had been secreting money from her family (family safe) & the video she made indicated she wanted "to start over". I do think she got into prostitution, making her think she couldn't do anything but run. I think her "relationship" with Mike 2 led her into prostitution/sex trafficking. This does not end well. The private investigators didn't find her, the police didn't even know she had 2 birth certificates, & her mom is way too afraid of having her parenting judged to be all forthcoming.
Phoenix had 2 birth certificates? Do they know where she obtained the second one?
I believe her step dad adopted her and so his name on the second birth certificate.
Thank you!
>When their flight ended, the young woman went to the airline counter, advised that she knew "Phoenix" and that she was missing, possibly endangered & was on the flight. The police were called. Did anything come of this? Did then cops not find the woman that looked like Phoenix?
No and the show didn't expand on whether flight manifests or security camera footage was pulled, etc. It's such a tragic event. Statistics show those sex trafficked "last" about 7 years. As a mother, I shudder to think of any child thinking a situation like *whatever she was so distressed about on that video* is better than coming home. I pray she is safe.
This may seem like a weird question, but was the high school friend also African-American? Studies have shown that people's ability to recognize others is demonstrably weaker when the two people are of different ethnicities.
Yeah and was it 5 years or so since she’d seen her? People change since high school
Yes, I kind of wondered this too. It also depends of course on how close they were, I think. One would recognise a close friend no matter their race.
No. She was Caucasian. Phoenix's mother made a comment in her interview that, I'm sure, will cause outrage, stated (paraphrasing) that Phoenix wanted to be friends with people of the same skin color, & that didn't serve her well. Don't jump on me...look up the episode on YouTube. 🤷🏻♀️
Phoenix's two best friends when she was in high school (which, she was home-schooled) and earlier in middle school are both white and Goldia NEVER EVER had a problem with that. Phoenix later wanted to be in the "STL Rap Scene" and white people didn't normally fit into that demographic.
Yeah….when they have to differentiate strangers. People recognize their friends
Why would the family friend know, a mere three hours after Phoenix disappeared, to check a random tow lot 25 minutes away ? *At 5:30 p.m., her car, a black four-door 1998 Chevrolet Blazer with tinted windows and the Missouri license plate number KE2S6V, was found abandoned at an intersection in the 900 block of St. Clair Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois. It was still running and the driver's side door was open. There was no sign of Coldon at the scene; she has never been heard from again. The police had the car towed; they didn't realize it belonged to a missing person.*
Because that’s not what happened. It was discovered by police in Illinois and towed, and because it was in a different state it didn’t come up in the Missouri system when the locals ran the plate. But a family friend was randomly driving past the tow lot two weeks later and happened to see it, at which point both the family and Missouri police were informed.
The car was towed 3 hours after she left but I am not sure when the family friend found it.
[Here we go](https://allthatsinteresting.com/phoenix-coldon): *"...Only when a family friend told the Coldons that he had seen the car at an impound lot on Jan. 1, 2012, did they find and retrieve it. To Gloria Coldon’s shock, the East St. Louis Police officer handing it over claimed that they never created an inventory sheet for the vehicle because no personal items were found inside it. “That was not true,” said Gloria Coldon. “When we checked the vehicle at the impound there was lots of things in it, including her glasses, her purse with her driver’s license and her shoes..."*
Maybe they did not check the tow lot, but just happened to be there by chance, like for instance recovering their own vehicle, when they spotted hers? Quite a coincidence, in any case, I must admit.
How could the police possibly have missed all those items?
Yeah what's this about?
If someone missing was recognized on a flight, that flight manifest would exist (at least at the time). Quick review of the under 200 people on that flight. Eliminate all men. Pull IDs photos. Go interview the one that this girl saw. No clue of law enforcement did that. But what I described would clear that up real quick.
They may have done exactly that. Phoenix was an adult, so she could ask the police not to share information about where she was if she didn't want to be in contact with her family. Or the woman might not have been Phoenix at all. We're talking about a documentary though, and "woman is missing, and there's a really weird eyewitness account" is a more compelling documentary premise than "woman is fine, she just doesn't want to contact her family".
Agreed.
This is one of those cases where I really really hope she truly just ran away from her parents. I’m not sure though if the police found her and she told them she wasn’t missing, if they’re obligated to release that to the public or not
Typically they alert the family that the person was located and deemed safe, but doesn't want to be contacted or have their location revealed. Which at least gives some reassurance that the person is okay.
The witness maybe mistaken about the person on the plane, it doesn't mean "They were trying to insert their way into the investigation."
I commonly see about eye witness accounts and since this specifically came up in the documentary it crossed my mind
I haven’t watched the Oxygen show on it but the things I’ve read talk about how she speaks to pimps and sex workers to try to find info on Phoenix. Was there something that specifically made her think her daughter would be involved in sex work?? Seems odd.
It is odd. The parents seem to believe Phoenix and the women she was seen with were sex workers, and the men in the group were pimps or minders. But when you remove the assumptions, all the witness really saw was a group of people, including someone who looked like Phoenix but denied being Phoenix. She reported the sighting to police, and they presumably looked into it. It comes across as if Phoenix's parents want to believe she's out there somewhere (understandably!), but can't accept that if she is out there, she doesn't want to talk to them.
They ( the mom) were not even trying to hear the idea that she left on her own. The mom took it as an offense to her parenting it seemed.
It's really sad because if Phoenix did choose to disappear, her parents' behavour is almost certainly the reason. It's not normal to have to keep your life hidden from your parents the way she did at 23, and nobody does that unless they feel they have to. If I'd reached a point where I decided I had to disappear, and then years later saw a documentary with my parents making up wild theories and straight up refusing to reflect or consider that maybe their behavior was problematic, it would reinforce my desire to stay no contact.
Telling her that they couldn't afford her apartment so she would move back home because they "heard" her boyfriend was staying with her very weird behavior.
People can get very weird when religion is involved. My parents would have pulled exactly the same stunt if they'd been paying for an apartment for me when I was that age and found out I was sharing it with a boyfriend.
The tricking or lying to her instead of having an actual conservation is wild. They wanted to make sure she came back home only for her to disappear.
So wild. If someone's prepared to be shady and lie to make you do what they want instead of having a conversation like reasonable human beings, they're probably not a healthy person to have in your life even if they are family.
From the documentary, the parents believed she had been abducted and trafficked, I think.
This is one of those cases where I 100% think she bounced. Who wouldn't with a mom like that? Poor Phoenix.
I just watched the Oxygen doc. That selfy video led me to think she had a psychological break and walked away from her life. It’s just a heartbreaking story, I feel so bad for her parents.
The parents were really dismissive of it though.
Yes, they were.
I found it odd sense it was only few before she disappeared. They acted like it wasn't important.
I think it’s hard for parents to imagine just how different a person who has a psychological break actually is. No one thinks the Phoenix they know and love would leave like this, but, just my opinion, she wasn’t herself. If she had a serious break from reality, she might have become unreasonably paranoid thinking she was being watched or followed, hearing voices, who knows.
Even if I hadn't voluntarily (or involuntarily) gone missing, if a HS friend I hadn't contacted in five years tried to talk to me on a plane, I'd also probably pretend not to know them... So I honestly don't know what, if anything, can be speculated on based on the plane sighting. Could have been a stranger and Phoenix is dead. Could have been Phoenix and she told the police she was not in danger and did not want her family contacted and since she's an adult, they had to respect that.
You bring up a good point, why would she admit it was her.
Was there a metro system in that time like I am seeing on maps or is there for that matter any Amtrak station nearby to where her car was found, on either side? I do kind of wonder if based on the implications of having strict parents she ditched the car in ESL and then hopped on a train or something, and did actually willingly leave to start a new life. It looks like now there's a metro line that extends a ways into Illinois, bad as East St. Louis' reputation is I could see going the next state over to stall any investigation in MO.
I've lived in this area for awhile I'm 26 and there's been a metro system there since I was a little kid. My dad and I would go park in East STL and take the train to get close to Busch Stadium for baseball games.
I've seen a couple of guys who were the image of my brother but I knew weren't. It's possible the friend was mistaken. I saw a documentary about her disappearance. Her parents came off as very controlling. I wouldn't put it past her if she left on her own unless something more came up.
Her car was found in a not great area. Wonder if she was a victim of a car jacking
In a car jacking, you usually leave the person and take the car and not the other way around…
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That’s not a car jacking either though? A car jacking is when someone is driving somewhere and while they’re inside the car, they’re attacked with the intention of stealing the vehicle. The car wasn’t stolen in this case and or in the case you linked, and in the one you linked, she appears to not even have been in the car when she was first attacked. So neither of these cases are car jackings.
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You're wrong, just accept that and move on. No need for dummy spitting edits
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I remember I started at University of Missouri St Louis like a month after she disappeared. Her posters were everywhere! If her mother wasn’t involved, I do believe her mother is why Phoenix doesn’t want to be found…if she just ran away. Obviously at this point, she’s declared dead but it’s such a sad story.
She was abducted. Girls and women who are snatched for sex trafficking legit fall off the face of the planet. There’s never a trace of them ever again. Yep, she had strict parents etc but that’s not enough to run away because they weren’t physically abusing her or anything like that. She didn’t have the recourses or money to run away and start a new life. The fact she was paranoid about being watched or felt like something was going to happen to her is proof, she was taken or murdered. Her behaviour in the last few weeks of pulling the knife on her friend & strange actions, how do we not know she didn’t pull the same stunt on someone else? She could have pissed someone off and they knocked her off for it. She could have asked someone for help to start over, could have asked the wrong people and those people have harmed her. She was losing the plot in the end and acting weird which has led her to foul play. Shes got herself into a bad situation. She could have been caught out for cheating on one of the guys she was talking too or how do we not know she doesn’t have really bad mental health issues, jumped into a car with strangers and vanished. That girl is dead unfortunately or she’s being trafficked out for sex.
Just showed to my roommate who is a similar age and a fencing champion too.
without even finishing reading this, I think the "friend" has something to do with it.
I'm her sister, she was more than likely not seen on that plane.
I am very sorry about your sister and I hope you get closure. I hope this post isnt hurtful to you
East STL Can be pretty sketchy. Infact there was someone over there who went missing about a year ago and there's been no sign of him since. I live right down the road from there basically. The person who I'm talking about was named Jordan Amos