Where is Jessica R. Leininger?

On November 23, 1988, six-year-old Jessica R. Leininger was staying at her maternal grandmother’s home in Bentonville, Arkansas. Her father reportedly had legal custody of her, but that day Jessica was taken by her non-custodial mother. Neither mother nor daughter has been heard from since.


Thirty-seven years later, what strikes me most about Jessica’s case is how little information is publicly available. We don’t have a publicly available photograph accompanying the case information I found. We don’t have basic identifying information about her mother. We don’t know where investigators believed they might have gone or whether Jessica may have grown up under another name. If Jessica is alive today, she is 44 years old.

That is why I am asking Northwest Arkansas to help.

Someone remembers this family. Someone may have gone to school with Jessica, known her parents or grandmother, lived nearby, or remember hearing about the disappearance in 1988. Somewhere there may be an old school photograph, yearbook, newspaper clipping, court record, or family connection that could help us learn more about what happened to this little girl.

Please read and share Jessica’s story, particularly with anyone who lived in Bentonville or Northwest Arkansas in the late 1980s. After 37 years, even one person's memory could matter.

Read: https://faithfireandtheforgotten.substack.com/p/where-is-jessica-the-1988-disappearance



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