Paula Ann Wade, 26, and her three-year-old son Brandon were last seen at their apartment on St. Augustine Road in Valdosta, Georgia, in the autumn of 2002. Paula failed to show up for her Sam’s Club shift on October 14, 2002; coworkers who checked her apartment found her 1998 Chevrolet Blazer parked outside but no sign of Paula or Brandon. The apartment appeared lived-in with no obvious signs of a struggle, though some of Brandon’s comfort items—a blanket and a musical tape—were left behind.

Paula was described as a devoted mother who spoke with her parents regularly and had recently been approved for a transfer to a Sam’s Club in Kissimmee, Florida, with family planning to help during the week she vanished. Her husband, stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, cooperated with investigators, passed a polygraph, and was ruled out as a suspect. Attention focused on a 19-year-old roommate who refused a polygraph and retained an attorney; a tip about a possible burial site yielded only animal bones when searched. The Valdosta Police Department and the FBI treat the case as a cold one; the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has circulated age-progressed images.

Anyone who knew Paula or Brandon, their routines, friends, or who was in the St. Augustine Road area in October 2002 is asked to come forward with information.