Bambi Luann Brantley was 25 when she vanished from Leesville, Louisiana, on the night of October 22, 1986. Newly arrived from Bartlett, Tennessee, she lived with her older brother Roddy in Tower Trailer Park and worked as a salesperson at Pynes Chrysler. Around 10:00 PM she walked less than a quarter mile to Super Sam’s, bought a fountain soda and used the payphone to ask her brother to come home so she could use their shared car. Roddy returned within about half an hour but Bambi was gone; the soda was later found untouched on the trailer floor and no one ever saw her again.

Numerous friends and acquaintances were interviewed and several witnesses reported seeing her walking along the highway after leaving the store, but the trail went cold. The case later drew renewed attention when two other local women disappeared in 1988 and 1989; one of those cases resulted in a manslaughter conviction but investigators could not definitively link that person to Bambi’s disappearance. The Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office reopened the case in 2018 and has conducted searches and re-interviews. Her brother Roddy and her mother Bonnie have died without learning what happened to her.

Does anyone who lived in Leesville or traveled that stretch of highway in October 1986 remember seeing Bambi or something unusual that night?