When a teenager who had her whole life ahead of her suddenly disappeared, authorities were baffled by the lack of solid evidence. Katelin Akens was supposed to board a flight home, but she never even made it to the airport. Survey Discovery’Disappeared: Flight Risk’ focuses on the young woman’s activities and the whereabouts that led to her disappearance. So if you’re curious about an update in the case, we’ve got you covered.
What happened to Katelin Akens?
Growing up, Katelin Michelle Akens lived in Caroline County, Virginia with her mother, Lisa Sullivan. She graduated from Caroline High School in 2011 and worked at the same local convenience store where her mother had a job. The 19-year-old moved to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, just days after her 18th birthday in 2014, to live with her fiancée. At the time of the incident, Katelin was looking forward to enrolling in cosmetology school in Arizona.
Katelin flew to Virginia to visit family in Spotsylvania County, Virginia for the birth of her nephew. After spending time with her parents, she took a flight to Arizona on December 5, 2015. At that time, Lisa’s ex-husband, James Branton, agreed to drop Katelin off at the airport at about 80 miles away. It was the last time Lisa saw her daughter. About two days later, Katelin’s suitcase with her money, credit cards, and plane ticket was found in a drainage ditch in Spotsylvania County.
Has Katelin Akens been found?
Lisa had dropped Katelin off at James’s around 8:30 a.m. on December 5. A few hours later, she received a text from James saying he had dropped Katelin off at the airport. At around 2 p.m. that same day, Lisa then received a text from her daughter’s phone that read, “I’m at the airport. The battery is flat, so I won’t be able to text for a while. Although she asked Katelin to call when she got on the plane, Lisa didn’t hear anything until 7:15 p.m. that night. This time, the texts were disturbing; they said she was staying with a friend and needed time alone.
Lisa didn’t think Katelin sent those texts. She believed someone else had used her phone to do it. Authorities later learned from James that he had dropped Katelin off at the Springfield Town Center in Virginia from where Katelin was going to take a subway to the airport. However, phone calls showed that Katelin or her baggage never left Spotsylvania. When Lisa tried to call Katelin she went straight to voicemail and two days later her stuff was located.
Authorities charged no one with Katelin’s disappearance, and without a body or any other evidence, it became difficult to prove a crime took place. It was reported that James stopped cooperating with investigators after some time. In March 2021, a missing persons foundation placed a notice board regarding Katelin’s case on the route James took to work. The hope was that he would change his mind about not cooperating with the police.
Police say the case remains open and any leads that arise will be thoroughly investigated. Lisa continued to hope that she would eventually find out what happened to her daughter. She said: “We don’t know if she’s lying in a ditch somewhere or if she’ll be fine. We don’t know if she’s partying, partying. If she’s there, will she be the same Katelin we know? I don’t know.” In 2021, Lisa added that finding Katelin’s body would bring her some closure.
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