Seventeen-year-old Kianna Galvin had just celebrated earning her GED and had plans to attend art school in Atlanta. But on May 6, 2016, she left her family’s home in South Elgin, Illinois, to visit someone in her neighborhood—and vanished without a trace. As hours turned into days, critical evidence began pointing investigators toward a dark possibility: that something terrible happened just blocks from her home.

Though police initially believed her to be a runaway, phone records and witness statements pointed to something far more sinister. But despite blood evidence, suspicious renovations, and conflicting statements from a person of interest, no arrests have been made in Kianna’s case, and nine years after her disappearance, there is still no trace of the bright, friendly teenager. Did someone she trusted betray her that spring afternoon? What really happened to Kianna Galvin?

If you have any information about what happened to Kianna Galvin, please reach out to the South Elgin Police Department at (847) 741-2151 or the Cook County Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit at 773-674-9490.

Subscribe to Day by Day: True Crime Stories

Buy the ebook! - And Then They Were Gone: True Stories of Those Who Went Missing and Never Came Home

Submit a case

Find us everywhere

Get episodes early and ad-free on Patreon

Merch store