The Unknown: Darkness Among Us #1

6 - The Disappearance of Kira Winters

Kira Winters disappeared over ten years ago.

She was a young eighteen-year-old who had her whole life ahead of her. A straight 'A' student who was about to leave her small-time village in the north of England to head to university. Then one day she vanished without a trace.

Kira had been a pillar of the community before she went missing. It was no surprise that everyone was out looking for her. Even the local politician organized searches for her. Just shows how much everyone loved her.

I had come here to see if I could find some connection that the police missed, all these years later. My name is Simon Smith. I'm an investigative journalist with the BBC.

Starting off my investigation, I wanted to learn as much as I could about Kira. Who was she? Who was her family? Friends? Goals? I know the papers went into a great deal about Kira when she first disappeared. But I wanted my own notes about her.

Her mother, Miss Amy Winters. She lost custody of Kira when she was two years old. Sentenced to ten years in custody, for possession with the intent to supply a class B drug. According to those who knew Amy she had multiple warnings and attempts to get clean, but she never stayed sober for long. She died of an overdose, not long after Kira went missing.

I expected to find that Kira would go on to live with her father. But she hadn't. She was sent to live with her grandparents, her mother's parents. Digging into it a little more, I found that there was no name on her birth certificate. I came up with a few theories as to why this could be. The top theory being it had been a one-night stand and she had no idea who the father was. He died before she was born, or quite possibly someone didn't want to be in the picture.

With no father listed and no way to tell if he was alive or not. I turned to the rest of Kira's life.

Kira grew up on a small farm. She was also set to inherit a small fortune from her grandparents. There were a lot of new articles about how long and hard, her grandparents worked to try and find their missing granddaughter. They ended up setting up a volunteering service to help find people who have been reported missing in the area. While never stopping their own search. They passed away never knowing what happened to her.

With no one left in Kira's family to talk to. I set up an interview with the politician who helped to organise many of the searches for Kira. A Mr George Moore.

Something about him unnerved me. Minding I hated interviewing politicians, their sly smiles and empty, calculated words always kept me suspicious. If I could avoid them at all costs. But there was something particular about Mr Moore, that had me on edge throughout the entire interview. It took everything I had to keep an expressionless mask through the entire meeting.

At first, Mr Moore had been more than happy to talk to me. He spoke in great lengths about how Kira was so important to the community. How her disappearance was a great loss that everyone felt. The more he spoke, the more I felt that his answers were rehearsed. No surprise there, he was used to playing to a crowd. He told me, word for word.

"...After all the good she had done for everyone. How could he just let her disappeared off the face of the earth, without trying to find her".

But when I questioned why he stopped helping the search altogether, not to mention that his career drastically profited off the disappearance of a young girl. His defence instantly went up. Like every other politician, I had the displeasure of interviewing.

He called in an elderly lady, who cut my interview short and had me escorted out by security. Which piqued my curiosity. Talking to a few people outside, I discovered that the lady had actually been Mr Moore's mother. A Mrs Nancy Moore.