Back from the Dead. Missing Mother Comes Home after 11 Years.

She dropped her children at school and then vanished without a trace.

Jessie London
4 min readJul 3, 2024

Brenda Heist, a 42-year-old mother of two dropped her children at school, went home and then vanished without a trace.

All her things were left untouched in her home, in the town of Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Upon returning from school, her children discovered the house deserted, with no indication of their mother’s whereabouts. Dinner had been left to defrost. The laundry was partially completed. To the kids, it looked like their mother had simply popped to the shop, but she never came home.

The children called their father, who promptly filed a missing person report with the police.

Four days later, Brenda’s vehicle was located in a car park near a bus station in an adjacent county.

A substantial search operation was launched as anxious friends and family members feared the worst. They firmly believed that Brenda would never abandon her children, an 8-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. Her husband, Lee Heist, soon became a suspect in her disappearance.

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Jessie London

Full-time Author & Writer of fiction & fact. British lady who loves tea with milk and bland biscuits.