Unsolved Mystery: Exploring the Disappearance of Bianca Piper

Images courtesy of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Information courtesy of The Charley Project.

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Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and it is not meant to cause harm to anyone connected with the case. Please do not contact, threaten, harm, malign, or otherwise intimidate those mentioned in the post. Please do not release any personal information of the people mentioned in this post, and do not join in attacks conducted by others. Per U.S. law, every person directly or indirectly connected with this case is innocent until proven guilty.

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About Bianca

Bianca Piper was born on December 26, 1991, to her parents, Shannon Tanner and David Piper. As the youngest of three girls, she was described as artistically inclined. She also loved horses, Barbie, and the color purple.

Shannon and David divorced in 1993, at which point David moved to Fredricktown, Missouri to accept a job as a truck driver. Later, Shannon started dating a man named Jim Felt. In October 2004, Jim moved in with Shannon and her girls. He was living with them at the time of Bianca’s disappearance.

In addition to the divorce, Bianca was diagnosed with multiple mental health conditions. At the time of her disappearance, she was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a severe case of Bipolar Disorder. Although it’s unknown when she was diagnosed, she began therapy at age four. These conditions caused her to experience mood swings, aggressive tendencies, occasional anxiety attacks, and difficulties with self-control.

As a result of her condition, she was in special education, where she could receive extra support, and she was on several prescription medications. Her conditions also caused her to have a short attention span and miss a lot of school, and she had the mental capacity of a second grader (approximately 7-8 years old). The medications helped to control her symptoms; if she didn’t take them, she could get disoriented and/or have hallucinations.

Disappearance

On the day of her disappearance, 13-year-old Bianca and her mother had gotten into an argument about her doing the dishes after dinner. What had started as a small argument escalated into a full-on meltdown for the young teen. Unfortunately, these meltdowns often occurred as a result of her condition.

Unsure of what else to do, Shannon decided to follow the advice of her daughter’s therapist: drive Bianca a distance away from the house and make her walk home by herself. This strategy had worked once before when Shannon dropped her off about half a mile from the house. It had proven to be successful; Bianca returned home safely, and her mood had improved. She even requested a longer walk next time.

This time, she decided to drop her daughter off about a mile from home at McIntosh Hill Road. At that point, the sun started to set, so she handed Bianca a flashlight and reminded her to come straight home.

It was 6:15 PM, and it would be the last time Shannon would ever see her daughter.

Meanwhile, she returned home to wait for her daughter, expecting her to walk through the door at any minute. As the minutes ticked by, her concern grew. An hour later, there was still no sign of Bianca, so Shannon and Jim returned to the area to look for her. Even after searching, they were unable to find her. The two then returned home, where Shannon reported her missing at 8:20 PM.

Investigation

From all accounts, officers responded quickly and began their search for the missing teen. Shannon showed them where she had dropped her daughter off earlier that evening. At first, officers assumed she had gone somewhere else instead of going straight home. As time passed, though, they grew more concerned. By this point, the temperature had dropped below freezing, and Bianca was not dressed for the weather. They feared that she would succumb to the elements if she wasn’t found quickly enough.

Unfortunately, no one had located her by the next morning, so the authorities initiated a search with over 100 officers on foot, horseback, and helicopters. Meanwhile, officers also set up checkpoints on nearby streets and questioned everyone who stopped at them. Volunteer firefighters assisted by going door-to-door, talking to residents, and obtaining permission to search their properties. The thought was that Bianca had sought shelter overnight to survive the cold. Despite their best efforts, no one found the missing teen or any sign of her.

Around the same time, the police began to focus their attention on Shannon and Jim, her live-in boyfriend. They were eager to speak to the pair, especially Shannon. She had received criticism for allowing Bianca to walk home by herself in the dark and cold. However, she reportedly maintained that she was simply following the advice of her daughter’s therapist.

Shannon and Jim were given lie detector tests, which they both passed. After David was interviewed, police ruled out all three as suspects.

As the days passed, over 200 people, including police officers, searched almost 150 miles of rugged terrain. They looked through caves and swamps, and they found two methamphetamine labs. However, there was no sign that Bianca’s disappearance was related to the labs, and they couldn’t find anything to suggest that she was still in the area.

After a week, the official search was called off. Police began to fear the worst, especially since there were no reported sightings. Despite this, civilians continued their search.

Within a month, a $5,000 reward was offered for any information leading to Bianca’s return. The family later matched the reward, bringing the new total to $10,000. With this new reward, the police received 130 tips, but they all led to dead ends.

Later Developments

In May 2005, approximately two months after Bianca disappeared, Shannon and Jim were involved in a domestic dispute that resulted in police intervention. She filed a complaint against him but later rescinded it, as they had reconciled.

Less than a month later, Shannon Tanner was arrested after she assaulted Tiffany, Bianca’s older sister. Tiffany claimed that Shannon struck her in the head with a curling iron, punched her in the face, and “threatened to tie her up and lock her in her bedroom,” at which point she called the police. Shannon claimed that Tiffany had thrown a glass plate at her, and she was simply trying to stop her daughter from hurting herself.

As she was being arrested, Shannon shoved a deputy and reached for a piece of broken glass. She was quickly subdued and taken to the station, where she was released after posting bail. Even though the authorities had publicly cleared her as a suspect in Bianca’s disappearance, the altercation and subsequent arrest cast doubt on her innocence.

Years would pass before the next potential break in the case. In 2007, authorities looked into the possibility that Michael J. Devlin, a local pizzeria manager, was responsible for the disappearances of Bianca Piper, Charles Henderson, and Scott Kleeshulte. In January of that year, they discovered that he had held two missing boys against their will within his home, Shawn Hornbeck and William Ownby. William had been missing for five days, and Shawn had been missing for over four years.

Following this discovery, Michael was arrested. He later pleaded guilty to child molestation and kidnapping, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Later on, a task force was formed to investigate his possible involvement in the disappearance of Bianca and other local children. In October 2007, the task force dissolved after investigators found no evidence to connect him with any other missing children.

In 2014, Tiffany (then 24 years old) was sentenced to eight years in prison after she sold two high school girls for sex. It was reported that she changed after her sister’s disappearance. At some point between 2007 and 2012, Tiffany was trafficked herself. Her accomplice was sentenced in April 2014 to five years in prison.

Since then, Bianca’s case has been at a standstill. Many, including her mother, believe that she was kidnapped, although investigators have never uncovered any evidence to suggest it. Though her loved ones continue to hold onto hope for a resolution, her case remains unsolved.

My Thoughts

The disappearance of Bianca Piper is incredibly heartbreaking and frustrating. A young teen went on a walk as the sun was setting to help her cope with her anger, and she never came home. Since then, there haven’t been any sightings of her or any signs that she was ever in the area. She didn’t vaporize into thin air. Someone knows what happened to her, even if they refuse to admit it.

I’ll be honest, this case hits home for me. Like Bianca, I was in Special Education when I was in grade school, although it was for anxiety and social skills. Later on, I was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). If it wasn’t for the support I received, I could’ve ended up with a similar fate.

This case shows that people with disabilities/mental health conditions are highly vulnerable. There are horrible people out there who see people like Bianca and think, “I can do whatever I want to them, and no one’s going to care.”

But the infuriating part is that there are going to be people who see that Bianca had anger problems/Bipolar Disorder/ADHD/the mental capacity of a second grader and somehow blame her for her fate. These are often the same people who view mental illnesses as character flaws instead of chemical imbalances.

Let me make this clear: Bianca did NOT deserve anything that happened to her. Regardless of her mental health, she was a child who deserved love, compassion, and safety. Her anger did not make her a bad person. Very often, anger is a sign that someone’s experiencing an immense amount of pain.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s look into the theories:

1. Bianca got lost as she walked home and succumbed to the elements.
2. Bianca’s mother had something to do with her disappearance.
3. Bianca was abducted.

Let’s look into these theories one by one.

First, we have the theory that Bianca got lost as she walked home and succumbed to the elements. At first, this seems plausible. After all, this was March in Missouri, the temperature fell below freezing that night, and she was not dressed for the weather. In addition, she was known to get disoriented if she wasn’t taking her medications. Those two factors could easily lead to a catastrophic situation.

As time passed and searches were conducted, this theory became less likely. Hundreds of people searched for her on foot, horseback, and helicopter, including trained investigators and civilians familiar with the terrain. Unlike many cases of missing teens, investigators started their search as soon as Bianca was reported missing.

With all of these factors, it’s unlikely that she got lost in that area, especially since no one saw any sign of her. From what I saw, no one found torn clothes, a lost shoe, the flashlight she was carrying, or anything that could be tied to her. The only way I can see this being the case is if she got disoriented or started having hallucinations due to her mental health conditions, which was possible. Except for something like that, I doubt she got lost.

That leads us to our second theory that Bianca’s mother had something to do with her disappearance. I’ll be honest, when I first heard that Shannon dropped her daughter off and made her walk home on the advice of her daughter’s therapist, alarm bells went off for me. Like I said, I was in special education, and I’ve been in therapy for over ten years. I’ve never heard of ANY mental health professional recommending a coping strategy like this. I had some issues with anger when I was a kid, and the professionals recommended strategies like hitting a pillow, exercising, and pushing the wall as hard as I could. At no point did any of them recommend having me go somewhere without adult supervision.

This coping strategy was strange enough that people began to point the finger at Shannon, especially because she was the last person known to be with Bianca that day. Her anger might have escalated to the point that she posed a danger to Shannon, who tried to restrain her and protect herself. That could’ve caused Bianca to get seriously injured or die, at which point she covered up what happened and made up the story about dropping her off.

However, if there was such a big altercation that Bianca died, there would likely be signs of a struggle within the home: broken dishes, overturned furniture, blood, etc. I was unable to find confirmation if the police found these or any signs of a struggle. Not only that, but the neighbors didn’t see or hear anything suspicious, and the police later ruled out Shannon, Jim, and David as suspects.

Even all these years later, Shannon is still doing interviews with the media, trying to keep her daughter’s story alive. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s responsible for the disappearance of their daughter. That sounds like a grieving mother seeking justice. While I agree that the therapist’s strategy is odd, it’s not enough to convince me that Shannon (or any of Bianca’s family members) was involved.

This leads to our last theory, that Bianca was abducted. This is the theory that most believe, including law enforcement. If someone took her, it would explain why searchers never found a sign of her.

Some might argue that it couldn’t have been an abduction because there were no signs of a struggle. However, given that she had the capacity of a second-grader, she could’ve been manipulated into getting in a vehicle. For example, someone could’ve said, “It’s getting cold out, let me give you a ride back to your house.” In the blink of an eye, the abductor could’ve driven out of the area, never to be seen again.

In 2007, authorities discovered that Michael Devlin had kidnapped at least two boys from the local area. Even though the police never found anything to connect him to Bianca, it’s still possible that he was involved. With many serial criminals, the exact number of victims is often unknown, especially if they refuse to confess and destroy evidence before they’re caught.

Even if it wasn’t Michael, there’s the possibility that another unknown abductor was involved. If they died or moved to another area after the crime took place, it would explain why no one knows anything.

Unfortunately, the problem with all three theories is that there isn’t enough evidence to determine what happened. As a result, no one’s been charged, her remains haven’t been located, and a family continues to grieve for their daughter. If the police had a few more pieces of evidence, this case could be solved quickly.

It’s going to take a brave person (or people) to come forward and tell the police everything they know. If you’re this person, I implore you to do the right thing here. End the nightmare for her family, and let Bianca come home, even if it’s just to receive a proper burial. She was a child who didn’t deserve what happened to her. Help make things right, and help her to get justice.

Unless new evidence is uncovered, the right person comes forward, or Bianca herself is found, the disappearance of Bianca Piper will remain unsolved and grow cold.

***

If you’re interested in more information about the disappearance of Bianca Piper, there are some news articles and blog posts, but there isn’t much of information.

The following sources helped me as I wrote today’s post:

• Fox 2 Now (“Sister of Missing Girl Admits Selling Two High School Girls for Sex”)
• KMOV4
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• The Charley Project
• Medium.com
• Stories of the Unsolved
• Investigation Discovery
• Lincoln News Now
• Fox 2 Now (“After 14 Years, Mother Has Renewed Hope Missing Daughter Could Be Found”)

If you have any information about the disappearance of Bianca Piper, please call the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 1-636-528-6100. You can also contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

What do you think happened? Let me know in the comments.