The location where Phoenix Coldon's car was found

This is the location where Phoenix Coldon's car was found abandoned.

It is situated near the corner of North 9th Street and St. Clair Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Coldon left her family home in Spanish Lake, Missouri, at about 3 p.m. on December 18th, 2011, and was never seen again. Her car was found at this section of North 9th Street roughly 2.5 hours later.

It is unclear where the 23-year-old was headed that day, as she didn't say anything to her parents before she left the house. At the time, they presumed that she was going to a friend's house or a local convenience store.

It only became clear that something was wrong after she broke her 1 a.m. curfew and failed to return home by the following morning.

When Coldon's parents, Goldia and Lawrence Coldon, called the Saint Louis County Police Department to report her missing, they were met with pushback due to her age.

The officer who took the call pointed out that she was an adult who could go wherever she liked. Although this was true, Coldon's parents felt that their daughter's failure to return home was extremely out of character.

In the days and weeks that followed, they checked local hospitals and distributed missing person fliers. They also reached out to news channels in the hope that they would publicize the case. However, none of them showed any interest.

Roughly two weeks later, a family friend found Coldon's 1998 Chevy Blazer at a tow lot in East St. Louis.

Later, they learned that the police had impounded her vehicle on the same day she disappeared.

2.5 hours after Coldon left her home in Spanish Lake, a St. Louis police officer named Kendall Perry noticed her Chevy Blazer at the side of North 9th Street.

At the time, he saw no indications that a crime had taken place. As far as he was concerned, the Blazer had been abandoned by its owner, who may have run out of gas and ditched it on the side of the road.

Nothing of interest was found inside the vehicle. Furthermore, a forensic examination failed to find any foreign DNA. The only samples present belonged to either Coldon or her parents.

Initially, there were reports that the door was open and the engine was still running.

However, years later, Officer Perry confirmed that the engine was off and the doors were closed.

It was Coldon's mother, Gloria, who reportedly conveyed the false information. She was unable to remember where she heard the details, as seven years had passed between the initial report and Perry's clarification.

In 2018, it emerged that Coldon had a second phone that wasn't on her family plan. It also came to light that she had a boyfriend named Michael B., whom she was keeping secret from her religious parents.

Although she did call her boyfriend on the day of her disappearance, the police are adamant that he isn't a suspect.

St. Louis County Police Officer Benjamin Granda said that "Michael B." was one of the most upfront people that they spoke to during the investigation. He is also 100% confident that he had nothing to do with Coldon's disappearance.

During one interview, one of Coldon's friends revealed that the 23-year-old had recently started a new relationship with a second man called Mike. She also theorized that this may have been the reason why she had a second phone.

One of Mike's ex-girlfriends claimed that he was so violent toward her that she took out a restraining order against him.

One popular theory is that Coldon may have run away from her strict parents. However, there has been no activity on her cell phone or social media accounts. Furthermore, her bank account was left untouched.

It appears as though she was living a somewhat complicated life. Before she went missing, she recorded a private video in which she tearfully said that she wanted to "start over." However, she did not say anything about running away or starting a new life somewhere else.

"I feel so stupid because I let myself go a little bit. I probably would have been in a better situation if I had stuck with how it used to be."

Judging by the context of the video, it appears as though she may have been talking about a situation that she had gotten herself into.

Although it is tempting to assume that this "situation" had something to do with her disappearance, she did not mention anything specific about her circumstances.

There has been very little (public) movement in Coldon's case over the past few years.

She remains missing to this day.