Cold Cases: Leanna Warner

In the quiet town of Chisholm, many questions seem to remain unanswered, and many of those questions revolve around June 14, 2003 — the disappearance of Leanna Warner.

“I never thought this many years later she’d still be gone,” Leanna’s neighbor, Sarah Baker said. Leanna Warner had just returned home from the Side Lake Rummage Sale with her mom and she wanted to go play at a neighbor’s house. Leanna made the trip down the street by herself and that was the last time she was seen.

“That’s the unique thing about this case, it’s basically a girl just vanished into thin air,” Chisholm Police Chief Vern Manner said. Manner has been working on the case since 2003 and has spent countless hours looking for answers.

 “You never think that this could happen in a small town and a lot of people at the disappearance really held their kids a lot closer,” Manner said. Leads on Leanna continue to come.

“We do have leads that come in every year, some good some bad,” Manner said.  These leads have taken Chisholm Police Investigators across the country. “There is little evidence to work with in the Warner case, and it is especially frustrating to police.”  The summer Leanna disappeared the department had the Chisholm Lake drained 18 inches as part of the effort to try to find her.

Many Chisholm residents have their own theories about what happened Leanna.

A jazz festival was going on in town the weekend Leanna vanished and a group of bikers had just arrived for a motorcycle rally. Time continues to pass, search units have cleared out, but the way safety is viewed in the small community has forever been altered.