As published in last month in EBONY's missing persons column, Phoenix Coldon, 23, of St. Louis, Missouri has been missing since December 18, 2011. Her family has been desperately using their resources to search for Coldon, until now. Because of a cruel hoax, in which a fabricated tip was given to the family about the whereabouts of Coldon leading them all the way to Texas, the family has not only exhausted all of their funds, but will also be losing their home despite explaining the situation to the bank. The man who gave the family the false information claims to have "made it up to get attention." When the family demanded that authorities make the man pay for his joke, which led to lost time, money, and effort, they were told that there was nothing that could be done. 

This tragic turn of events in Coldon's case only adds to the number of irresponsible ways in which her case has been treated, including incomplete police work done on the day of her kidnapping to today, when a majority of news outlets have failed to spotlight the disappearance of this accomplished young woman. Given the similarities between Coldon's disappearance and that of another young woman, who ultimately escaped her captors, there's a likely chance that Coldon was abducted and forced into the sex trade. Ever since the vanishing of their daughter last winter, the family has taken it upon themselves to investigate Coldon's disappearance, with her father leading the searches in surrounding areas. 

"There are so many vacant lots and abandoned buildings in East St. Louis," Goldia Coldon, Phoenix's mother, explained. "My husband keeps going over there and searching them. I can't do it. The thought of that — of our daughter being there — I just can't do it. I'm not strong enough for that."