Chisholm, Minnesota is a small city of roughly 5,000 people about an hour and a half northwest of Duluth. It was founded as a mining town and the area is called "meebeega" by the Chippewa tribe, which translates as "rough earth." I believe this also translates to the people who live in this tough little Iron Range community. It is also a town where people don't believe bad things can happen.
Leanna Warner, who was nicknamed Beaner by her grandfather, was five years old on June 14, 2003, when she arrived barefoot at her friend's house around the corner. The family had gone to Wal-Mart, so she headed back the way she came. She was last seen by two different neighbors between 5:00 and 5:15 that evening. She was reported missing by her parents, Chris and Kaelin Warner, at around 9pm after doing their own search.
There is very little to go on in this case. Initially, the police believed she had wandered off, and there was not enough information to issue an Amber Alert. (There has to be a known abduction to issue an Amber Alert.)
Bloodhounds used in the search tracked Leanna's scent to Longyear Lake, which is just two blocks away from Warner's home. Her footprints were also found there, but it wasn't until October of 2003 that the police pumped some water out of the lake to check for evidence. They had to stop pumping because the lake was freezing over and never checked the lake again.
Leanna's parents did not do lie detector tests and are not considered suspects in this case. Although there was a history of domestic violence, this was many years before Leanne's disappearance and there were no recent issues or any plausible reason why either parent would want to harm Leanna.
Leanna was wearing a blue denim jumper, no shoes and a red earring in one ear at the time of her disappearance. She has brown hair and brown eyes. If she was abducted by a stranger, it is an extremely rare event. Of the 800,000 children reported missing every year, only 115 are abducted by strangers or acquaintances who plan to keep them long term. This does remain a possibility, especially since there was a festival that day that brought in a thousand or so strangers into the community. However, many people were interviewed with no clues.
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| Leanna Warmer, age progression to 14 |
