Leslie Dawn Mashburn was 23 when she walked away from her Sanford, North Carolina, home on December 10, 1997, and never returned. A young mother who had been struggling with depression, she told her mother she felt like jumping off a nearby bridge less than half a mile from her house, near the Carbonton Dam Bridge on Highway 42. When she left she wore a white shirt, white stonewashed jeans, and old Reebok tennis shoes.

Leslie is described as a white female with brown hair and brown eyes, standing between 5 feet 2 inches and 5 feet 6 inches and weighing 95 to 105 pounds. She had pierced ears and the tip of her right pinky finger was missing from the first joint. Searches of the area and Deep River used canine teams, helicopters, and airplanes but turned up no trace.

If anyone knew Leslie, where she spent time, or saw her on or after December 10, 1997, please share information that might help her family find answers.