VANISHED: Darron Glass

Summary

Up and Vanished Weekly: VANISHED – Darren Glass

Release Date: June 11, 2025
Host: Maggie Freeling
Guest: Payne Lindsay, Creator of Atlanta Monster

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of Up and Vanished Weekly, hosts Maggie Freeling and Payne Lindsay delve into the haunting case of Darren Glass, a 10-year-old boy who vanished in Atlanta in 1980. This disappearance is intricately linked to the infamous Atlanta Child Murders, a series of tragic cases that left the city in fear for decades.

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Darren Glass's Disappearance

The episode opens with Maggie Freeling setting the scene of 1980s Atlanta, a city grappling with a series of mysterious child disappearances and murders. Darren Glass disappeared on September 14, 1980, after attending an Atlanta Braves baseball game with a church group. Despite multiple sightings and a possible phone call to his foster mother, Darren was never found.

Notable Quote:
Maggie Freeling [00:45]: "Darren is the only suspected victim of the Atlanta child murderer who has never been found."

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Atlanta Child Murders Context

Payne Lindsay provides a comprehensive background on the Atlanta Child Murders, which spanned from 1979 to 1981, claiming the lives of 29 black children, teenagers, and young adults. The investigation was marred by insufficient responses from law enforcement and a lack of proactive measures in the early stages.

Notable Quote:
Payne Lindsay [04:06]: "I first learned about the Atlanta child murders from my business partner, Donald. At the time, I had never heard of this case."

---

Investigation into Wayne Williams

The narrative shifts to the arrest and conviction of Wayne Williams, a 23-year-old man from Atlanta, who was charged with the murders of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne. Williams was linked to the crimes through forensic fiber evidence, although his conviction remains a topic of debate.

Notable Quotes:
Payne Lindsay [05:36]: "I personally believe, and I cannot prove that Darren Glass was a victim of Wayne Williams."
Payne Lindsay [22:35]: "They were so specific because they were able to, under a microscope, find this precise blend that was super rare."

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Alternate Theories and Ongoing Debate

The hosts explore various theories questioning Williams' sole responsibility for the murders. These include potential involvement of the Ku Klux Klan, child predator rings, and even the possibility of copycat killers. Despite these theories, the physical evidence against Williams remains compelling to many.

Notable Quote:
Payne Lindsay [35:09]: "If Darren Glass decided to run away and then found himself safe somewhere and grew up, then where is he now? He's nowhere to be found, in my opinion, because he isn't to be found alive."

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Current Status and Ongoing Efforts

Payne discusses the aftermath of Williams' conviction and the continued efforts to revisit the unsolved cases. The Atlanta Police Department officially closed many of the cases by attributing them to Williams, but questions and doubt persist among the victims' families and the community.

Notable Quote:
Payne Lindsay [42:50]: "It's been over 45 years and we're still awaiting answers."

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Impact on the Community and Darren's Legacy

Maggie reflects on Darren's vulnerable position—being only 10 years old, in foster care, and having an IQ of 65—which made him an easy target. The lack of resolution in his case highlights systemic failures and the enduring pain for those seeking closure.

Notable Quote:
Maggie Freeling [34:36]: "It is heartbreaking to think that he is the only suspected victim of the Atlanta child murderer who has never been found."

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Payne Lindsay emphasizing the importance of continued investigation and the emotional toll on the families affected by these tragedies. The search for answers remains a vital pursuit, as the community strives to uncover the truth behind Darren Glass's disappearance and the broader Atlanta Child Murders.

Notable Quote:
Payne Lindsay [40:36]: "It's a lifelong thing. It's never stopped. And through the years, we've learned a lot more about the Atlanta Child Murders, Wayne Williams, some of the victims on the list."

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Final Thoughts

Up and Vanished Weekly masterfully intertwines investigative journalism with empathetic storytelling, bringing to light the unresolved mysteries that continue to haunt Atlanta. This episode not only sheds light on Darren Glass's disappearance but also invites listeners to reflect on the complexities and enduring quest for justice in cold cases.

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For more information and updates on Darren Glass's case and other critical missing persons cases, visit Tenderfoot TV's Instagram page @avweekly or contact local authorities if you have any information.

Transcript

[Maggie Freeling]

You're listening to a Tenderfoot TV podcast.

[Payne Lindsay]

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[Rob]

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[Payne Lindsay]

Foreign.

[John]

Vanish Weekly is released every Wednesday and brought to you absolutely free, but for one week early access and ad free listening. Subscribe to Tenderfoot plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts if you're already a subscriber. Thank you for your support.

[Narrator]

This podcast discusses mature and sensitive content in including descriptions of violence that may.

[Maggie Freeling]

Be triggering for some audiences.

[Narrator]

Listener discretion is advised.

[Maggie Freeling]

Hey y' all. Welcome back to another episode of up and Banish Weekly. I'm your host Maggie Freeling. Today I want to take you back to 1980s Atlanta before it emerged as the arts and music mecca that it is today. The city concealed a dark secret. Every day felt like a fight for survival. The city was plagued by a real life boogeyman who lurked among the shadows. Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, nearly 30 black children and young adults went missing or were murdered and many believe they're all somehow linked. But one disappearance that many have long suspected to be linked to the so called Atlanta Monster still remains a mystery. Today we're going to talk about the disappearance of Darren Glass. Darren was just 10 years old when he disappeared on September 14, 1980 and 45 years later we still don't know what happened to him. Today I'm sitting down with Payne to discuss Darren's disappearance. Payne, you know this case super well. You looked into it as part of your investigation into the Atlanta child murders for the series Atlanta Monster, one of my favorite podcasts. So why did you decide to look into the Atlanta child murders?

[Payne Lindsay]

I first learned about the Atlanta child murders from my business partner, Donald. At the time, I had never heard of this case. I'd never heard of Wayne Williams, the serial killer.

[Narrator]

Even though you're from Atlanta?

[Payne Lindsay]

Even though I'm from Atlanta. I felt like, how did I not know about this? It felt like it was extremely important and it was foreign to me. I decided that I was gonna go in to cover this case and retell the story historically of what happened. I wanted to go into it cold, not knowing anything, which was totally organic and kind of just dive back into history.

[Maggie Freeling]

So Darren's case has been linked to others who are considered victims of the Atlanta child murderer. So what stands out about Darren and his disappearance?

[Payne Lindsay]

The toughest part about Darren's case really is that there isn't much to go on. I do not think it's a coincidence that Wayne Williams was murdering children of the same exact ethnicity, age, area at that time. I personally believe, and I cannot prove that Darren Glass was a victim of Wayne Williams. If you look at the victimology of Darren Glass is just too uncanny. It's the exact same victim that Wayne Williams was after.

[Maggie Freeling]

Yeah, there seemed to be some very clear parallels between Darren and other confirmed victims, and we're going to get into all of that shortly. But one of the major concerns is that there was a lot of conflicting information about what actually happened the day Darren went missing, which has led to a lot of speculation. But here's Rob with the few details we do know.

[Narrator]

Sunday, September 14, 1980 was an unseasonably warm day in Atlanta, Georgia. 10 year old Darren Glass left his foster home located at 2290 Memorial Drive Southeast on Atlanta's east side, to attend an Atlanta Braves baseball game with a local church group that afternoon. The Braves edged out the Padres with a 43 victory and the city buzzed with celebration. But the joy would be short lived. Just hours later, Darren's foster mother, Fannie Mae Smith, reported him missing. Reports surrounding Darren's disappearance vary. Some witnesses claimed they saw him exit the church bus just a few blocks from his foster home after the game, while others offered conflicting accounts. Fannie Mae Smith, his foster mother, confirmed that Darren came home briefly before heading back outside. A short time later, she received an urgent Phone call from someone who identified himself as Darren. Before she could respond, however, the caller abruptly hung up. Darren never returned home, and she never heard from him again. Darren's foster brother, Eric Carr, later claimed that he had phone contact with Darren as late as November 1980. However, law enforcement was unable to verify this. Authorities also followed up on multiple reported sightings of Darren, but none led to his discovery.

And today, the searches took the form of a canvas here in Darren's old neighborhood, discovered today could be that of Darren Glass.

[Payne Lindsay]

Canvas. Nearby neighborhoods have shown an updated picture of the boy to hundreds of people. No avail. Darren Glass wasn't found today, nor was the boy.

[Narrator]

Darren's disappearance raised one haunting question. Had he simply run away? Or was he yet another victim of the infamous Atlanta child murderer? From Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, this is up and Vanish weekly with Payne, Lindsay and Maggie Freeling.

[Maggie Freeling]

Darren is the only suspected victim of the Atlanta child murderer who has never been found. And adding to that, at only 10 years old, Darren already had a very hard life. He lost both his parents at a young age and then was placed into foster care. Payne, do we know anything else about Darren Glass?

[Payne Lindsay]

I mean, that's what's unfortunate about this case. Growing up in that really tough position like he did, there isn't a lot of documentation on him. And to me, that just made.

[Narrator]

And he's only 10. What kind of paper trail does a 10 year old talk about?

[Payne Lindsay]

A 10 year old we're talking about. I just think that he was extremely vulnerable in life and became a victim of Wayne Williams because of some of those circumstances that he couldn't control.

[Narrator]

What was the response when he first goes missing? Did people kick into high gear? This is a kid who had run away before.

[Payne Lindsay]

In the early 80s, late 70s in Atlanta, there was not a very good, consistent, legitimate response from law enforcement when a black child went missing. That's just a straight up fact. The police were not being as proactive as they should have been, and damn, they should have because they had a real serial killer on their hands. And I think once the numbers started adding up and there became a real pattern and it was looking like there was a single killer behind this, that's when the FBI stepped in. That's when Atlanta government police finally started taking this seriously.

[Narrator]

How many missing dead boys did it take for them to finally be like, oh, shit, I think we have a problem?

[Payne Lindsay]

They let this go on for probably near a dozen murders before. They treated it like a dozen murders had happened, which is a problem at first. Darren Glass's foster mother figured he was a runaway. Darren had done that type of thing several times before.

[Eric Carr]

He's really just hiding.

[Narrator]

Are you worried about him?

[Eric Carr]

Sure is.

[Narrator]

But you just think he he's going.

[Payne Lindsay]

To eventually come home.

[Eric Carr]

Oh, he's going to show up. He is. Is. You can show up.

[Maggie Freeling]

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[Narrator]

And we're back. So like I said at the top of the episode, Darren's disappearance did not happen in a vacuum. It intersected with a major crisis that had already been unfolding in Atlanta for several years, what we know now as the Atlanta Child Murders. Many believe that is the most logical explanation about what happened to Darren. Here's Rob with more.

In the aftermath of the civil rights movement, Atlanta emerged as a beacon of black culture, leadership, education and political power. But beneath the city's rising reputation lay a dark and terrifying secret. Each night, television anchors delivered a chilling reminder.

[Rob]

It's 10pm do you know where your children are?

[Narrator]

For many families, it wasn't just a rhetorical question. A real life boogeyman was stalking the streets, preying on the city's most vulnerable its children. A killing spree began in Atlanta in July of 1979. Over the next two years, 29 black children, teenagers and young adults, mostly boys, were abducted and murdered. Many of the cases shared striking similarities and were linked by forensic fiber evidence. In 1980, the FBI joined the multi agency task force investigating Atlanta's missing and murdered children, hoping to identify the killer and bring calm to a terrified city. But the case grew colder and the leads dried up. After the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article revealing that fiber evidence connected several of the victims, the killer abruptly changed his method, beginning to dispose of bodies in the Chattahoochee River. On May 21, 1981, police conducted a surveillance operation on the James Jackson Parkway Bridge, which spanned the river. In the early morning hours of May 22, officers heard what they described as a big splash. Moments later, they stopped a white 1970 Chevrolet station wagon exiting the bridge. Behind the wheel was 23 year old Wayne Bertram Williams, a black man from a respected Atlanta family. Two days later, the body of 27 year old Nathaniel Cater was recovered from the river. Investigators subsequently turned their focus to Wayne Williams as the prime suspect. One month after the encounter on the bridge, Williams was arrested and charged with the murders of Cater and 21 year old Jimmy Ray Payne, another victim whose body had been found in the Chattahoochee River a month earlier. Investigators collected fibers from William's car, home and dog. This was prior to DNA testing, but the fibers were matched to fibers found on the victim's bodies. In 1982, Wayne Williams was convicted of the murders of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne. During the trial, however, prosecutors Introduced evidence related to 10 other cases, mostly involving young black males, to establish a pattern and suggest that Williams was responsible for the broader series of Atlanta's missing and murdered children. Following the trial, Law enforcement attributed 22 of the 29 Atlanta child murders to Wayne Williams and officially closed the investigation despite vocal opposition from many of the victims families. So had authorities found their culprit or had some of the victims been wrongfully attributed to the so called Atlanta monster.

The Atlanta child murders. What are we talking about?

[Maggie Freeling]

What are the similarities?

[Narrator]

What are some of the patterns when we are grouping these victims together?

[Payne Lindsay]

They were boys, ages 8 to 14, 16 in Atlanta, all black children, and they were disappearing out of black neighborhoods, which became important to the police when they actually started investigating this and taking it seriously. Because one of their first thoughts when they put their thinking caps on, they thought, well, it would be pretty difficult for a white man to stroll into one of these neighborhoods, snatch these kids and drive off this many times.

[Narrator]

So undetected, he would stand out in these neighborhoods.

[Payne Lindsay]

Yeah. And that was just kind of like an observation made by the FBI and the Atlanta police. And even the local community was saying that. They were saying if there was some white guy that wasn't from the community that looked suspicious at this point, they would have noticed that person. It led investigators to believe that whoever was doing this, whoever was responsible, was blending in somehow. Who the hell is this person?

[Narrator]

Right. And isn't one of the things that we believe about serial killers is that they generally kill within their own race?

[Payne Lindsay]

That's been historically true. It's a strange, bizarre stat. But traditionally, serial killers have chosen victims of their same race. I don't know why that is. I don't know the psychology behind that. But if you're looking at history and trying to use that to aid your investigation, it was something that they couldn't and did not ignore.

[Narrator]

Here is a kid that, you know, we don't know the extent of his, quote, troubled youth, but he was in foster care and he allegedly had a history of running away. Why is this a connection specifically to the Atlanta child murders?

[Payne Lindsay]

Because he fits within all the other victims at that time. He is the same kind of kid that Wayne Williams was in fact out kidnapping and killing at that time.

[Narrator]

Explain some of that. Explain Wayne's like. Like how, who was he going for? What was he doing?

[Payne Lindsay]

So Wayne Williams had this hobby that he pretended was this full blown career where he was basically trying to make a boy band. He was trying to make the next Jackson 5. And so he would put out flyers and stuff in the city, and he would rent out studios, recording studios, and he would gather kids around these same ages together trying to record an album. Just so happened that it was the same exact demographic as the children who were turning up missing and murdered. And so not only did the physical evidence stick, but he had a means to get close to these kids without it seeming or feeling overly suspicious.

[Narrator]

Can you walk me through your investigation a little bit into these cases? You actually got your hands on original files?

[Payne Lindsay]

Yes, it was very difficult getting these files. And it really happened over the course of a couple of years. Even after Atlanta Monster ended, we got our hands on even more files from the Atlanta Police Department. We were able to dive into news archive and old tape, tons of FBI materials. I've heard a lot of people who are in the camp that Wayne Williams may not have done it. Running with that theory. They like to shoot down the carpet fiber evidence which was used against him and ultimately is what led to his guilty verdict. You know, it's easy just to look generally at this idea of, oh, there's similar carpet fibers on these victims. That could be anything. Well, I met with one, the guy who analyzed these fibers, and two, the forensic pathologist, and I learned just how rare these fibers were.

[Maggie Freeling]

Weren't these specific fibers green? Am I remembering that correctly?

[Payne Lindsay]

Uh, yes. They were so specific because they were able to, under a microscope, find this precise blend that was super rare. And they could track exactly how many places it was. And it was something like under 60 houses in the country that this was at. And so the odds of this fiber being on more than one victim is insane. So that tells you that the victims are linked. The odds that it's the same carpet fiber inside Wayne Williams parents house where he lived, plus dog hairs that match his dog, it's no longer a coincidence. That's physical evidence that points to you did it? I eventually talk to Wayne Williams himself. He's still in prison. He claims he's innocent. However, he's in prison for life for the murder of two individuals. Asking Wayne Williams anything is damn near impossible. It's hard to even describe it. There's this mix of deflection, manipulation, defensiveness with a blend of charm.

[Narrator]

How many times did you talk to him? Because I remember being riveted in your conversation with him. Because I remember going into the podcast thinking and. And it maybe, you know, at least you did a good job presenting it this way that you were trying to figure out, like, is this man responsible?

[Payne Lindsay]

Yes.

[Narrator]

I thought you were going into it like, kind of like a wrongful conviction. Did he actually do this? So in my head I'm listening and I'm like, oh man, maybe this guy didn't actually do this, right?

[Payne Lindsay]

I approached it with, hey, you know, there's this notion still out there that maybe you didn't do this, and that's what he's claiming to me. So I said, okay, let's talk about this and let's unpack why it is that you're innocent. Then I learned very fast that talking to Wayne Williams is just damn near impossible. The guy just runs circles around you, just leaves no room for you to insert anything. And it's like an hour goes by and the call's over and you're like, I don't even know what we talked about. I was like, okay, this guy's really good at throwing on this charm, dancing around accountability of anything and the hard hitting questions. And so what I eventually did was I took all the hours and hours of recordings that I had with them and I went through for days and I listened to everything and I wrote down every inconsistency there was and I matched it with the actual evidence. I tried to, in the sharpest, most concise way possible, using what he told me against him and just presented it to him in a call one day and said, hey, you said this, and then you said this. These things don't add up. He got really flustered and I just kept pressing and to me, and probably to a lot of listeners who heard that, which is at the very end of the podcast, it proves that he's a liar. When we first talked to you right after you reported Darren missing in the police were out here, you felt that he was a runaway.

[Eric Carr]

Well, at that point I do, but I don't know.

[Payne Lindsay]

What do you think has happened now?

[Eric Carr]

Well, I think he just run out in the street and met with foul play like the rest of the kids.

[Payne Lindsay]

You have no no more hope that.

[Eric Carr]

Oh, I don't have no more hope. He's alive.

[Maggie Freeling]

We'll be back after the break.

[Narrator]

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[Maggie Freeling]

And now, here's John with this week's critical missing case.

[John]

Today's case comes to us from KDKA News in Pittsburgh. According to the outlet, police are asking for the public's help with finding a woman who disappeared from the Greensburg, Pennsylvania area on Monday, June 2, 2025. Multiple agencies are coordinating searches for 47 year old Lisa Slavnick, who went missing from her home on the 200 block of Grant Street, Greensburg. Police say that Lisa was last seen in bed around 10:30pm Home on Sunday, June 1, but by 6:30 the following morning she was nowhere to be found. Now her family is concerned for her safety because she may have sustained a head injury the night before she disappeared. Authorities Believe that Lisa doesn't have access to her vehicle and she left behind her purse and debit cards and her cell phone appears to be turned off. Now, an initial search for Lisa included the use of bloodhounds which tracked her scent to a nearby gas station and parked. But that's where the trail seems to be lost. Lisa has gray blonde hair and she was last seen wearing black pants and a gray three quarter length zip pullover and possibly a black Pittsburgh Pirates undershirt as well as black flip flops. So, listeners, we need your help in spreading the word about Lisa Slavnick. You can check out the up and Vanish weekly Instagram page avweekly, where you can see a picture of Lisa and share our post from more visibility. And lastly, if you've seen Lisa or you know information about her whereabouts, you're asked to contact the Greensburg Police at 724-834-3800.

[Maggie Freeling]

All right, we're back.

[Narrator]

So what did he say when you asked him about Darren Glass?

[Payne Lindsay]

He wouldn't go there. He. He did not want to go there. Which also makes me think that there's more to it. If Wayne was actually innocent, then he would also care about these kids, right? He would also care about the kid who's still missing. But the fact that Wayne doesn't even care about that and only wants to talk about himself to me says two things. One, he's a sociopath, and I think he's the Atlanta monster. And two, it lends further credence to the idea that he may have had something to do with Darren Glass. You also have to remember how Wayne got caught. He got caught because they realized the killer, whoever he was, was tossing bodies off of bridges in Atlanta. So they literally went and staked out every single bridge in Atlanta, secretly hiding in the woods, hiding their cars undercover, and they just waited to see if somebody would dump a body. And literally that's what happened. Wayne Williams got caught on a bridge dumping a body.

[Narrator]

It's insane. It's. It's truly insane.

[Payne Lindsay]

And I even talked to some kids who were, who were adults now who have stories who claim, and I believe them, that they were picked up by Wayne Williams and they survived. But only in hindsight, once he was caught, were they like, holy shit, that was Wayne Williams who picked me up, right? I could have died that day.

[Narrator]

From the beginning, intense debate has surrounded whether Wayne Williams is truly responsible for the Atlanta child murders. At the time, the city was deeply divided, often along racial lines, over whether the right man was behind bars. As Payne and his team reopened the investigation. New tips pointed in disturbing directions. The Ku Klux Klan, child predators, and even family members were floated as possible suspects. The Klan theory's not far fetched. In fact, a secret FBI document from the time mentions possible Ku Klux Klan involvement in some of the murders. The FBI director reportedly requested that this information be kept confidential, stating that if it were made public, it would possibly cause a race riot. In 2019, 11Alive News reported on a top secret investigation that reviewed these FBI files. The files indicated that fibers and hairs collected during the investigation could not be linked to Klan members and that those individuals passed polygraph tests. During the Atlanta child murders investigation, a child predator ring was reportedly active in the city, and several of the missing boys were connected to a home known for sex trafficking. Although the task force pursued this lead, their findings did not result in criminal charges against any alternative suspects. The theory involving family members is difficult to accept, but in several cases, relatives and acquaintances of the victims were considered suspects. To date, none have been charged. More than 45 years later, many of the victim's families still believe that Wayne Williams was a scapegoat used to cover up a broader conspiracy that left Atlanta's children dead and its community shattered. But what if Wayne Williams is not responsible for Darren's disappearance? And so the question remains, is Wayne Williams responsible for the disappearance of Darren Glass?

[Maggie Freeling]

So there's a lot of questions about Darren's disappearance and the potential link to Wayne Williams. Payne, you obviously feel strongly that Wayne Williams is the prime suspect in Darren's disappearance.

[Payne Lindsay]

Right.

[Maggie Freeling]

But for the sake of argument, we'll discuss some alternate theories that some people have suggested. First, Darren had a rough childhood. He was in foster care. And many people raised the fact that he had a history of running away. Why do you believe this theory does not hold weight, him running away?

[Payne Lindsay]

The problem is, when someone goes missing, every possibility is still on the table, essentially, and that makes it a maddening investigation. But from what I've found, people don't just go missing. If Darren Glass decided to run away and then found himself safe somewhere and grew up, then where is he now? He's nowhere to be found, in my opinion, because he isn't to be found alive.

[Narrator]

So, Payne, did you come across any other theories while you were investigating the Atlanta child murders?

[Payne Lindsay]

I will add this, and it has some credence to it. I don't think it's a lot of the murders, but I do think at least one of the murders on the list the kkk, was responsible for. The KKK In Atlanta was a very real and active thing going on that was not a secret.

[Narrator]

Even as late as the 80s.

[Payne Lindsay]

Absolutely. It was no secret. I believe the victim, Luby Jeter, was killed by a member of the kkk. I believe that because of what witness testimony? I even met a man who his voice I disguised on the podcast. I actually talked to him again recently just to kind of clarify some things. He told me completely outright. One particular man in the KKK was responsible for Lou Be Jeter's murder, whose name is also on the list. And coincidentally, it's one of the murders on the list that Wayne Williams likes to talk about the most. As to see. Look, I'm innocent. Really, Those two things together make me think, yeah, you're right, Wayne, the KKK probably did kill Luby Jeter. But Wayne, you also probably killed these 15 other kids as well. It's messed up because there's so many victims here and a pathological liar is going to cherry pick cases that he wasn't a part of and focus only on that, not the ones that have all the physical evidence. Right. There's also the idea of copycat killers, which are a real thing. There were some copycat killers at least mimicking the killer himself before Wayne was caught, to the police, who ended up not being the actual killer, but the same way that one guy claimed he was there when JonBenet Ramsey died, but he wasn't that weirdo. People do that. They've done that in history. It's not impossible or implausible to theorize that. Maybe he could have been a victim of somebody who was kind of a copycat killer and his disappearance kind of gets lost in the shuffle of this manhunt. Right? All of these things are legitimate possibilities, truly. But I feel like those are more rabbit holes than they are, you know, a lot of ground to stand on.

[Narrator]

You think this is more of an outcomes racer. These boys this age, similar to Darren, are disappearing at the same time. And there's one person who's responsible for most of them.

[Payne Lindsay]

Walks like a dog, talks like a duck. Mm. The duck.

[Maggie Freeling]

Be back after a short break.

[Narrator]

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[John]

Hey listeners, if you're enjoying this episode, then you should check out the Tenderfoot Original series Atlanta Monster jump headlong into 1980s Atlanta and a backstory around one of the city's darkest secrets and learn why, even 40 years later, so many questions still remain. Experience Payne's on the Ground investigation firsthand and dive deep into the details surrounding the many mysteries that the team is still unraveling to this day. From Tenderfoot TV and iHeart podcasts, listen to Atlanta Monster wherever you get your podcasts. Now back to the show.

[Narrator]

So I'm curious where things stand now.

[Maggie Freeling]

Is the case closed or is there.

[Narrator]

Investigative work still ongoing? What are you guys doing to keep tabs at this point? And are you even One of the.

[Payne Lindsay]

Saddest parts of the Atlanta child murders is that prosecutors, investigators, the Atlanta Police Department essentially grouped all of these murdered children into one group and said, yeah, Wayne did all of them, essentially, right? And so once he was put away for two murders on the list, they unofficially but officially attributed the rest of them to him. And so it's kind of like case closed, right? But not true because we don't know what happened to those other kids specifically. They didn't see their day in court, right. Their parents didn't see Wayne Williams go to prison for the murder of their boy. They left it open ended by sweeping it under the rug. And so in no way, shape or form is the APD actively investigating any of this stuff. Now there has been a lot of pressure and news coverage in recent years from Atlanta Monster, Mindhunter, several documentaries that have come out, the Atlanta mayor pushing for it, the reopening of some of these cases and trying to find that closure for these families. And so that's an ongoing thing. It's also an, it's an ongoing fight really just like all the cases I've ever covered. Even though the podcast season may have ended one, they've never left my brain. I've never stopped thinking about them. I've also never stopped poking around, trying to uncover more and trying to find the answers and closure that I set out for in the beginning. It's a lifelong thing. It's never stopped. And through the years, we've learned a lot more about the Atlanta Child Murders, Wayne Williams, some of the victims on the list. And so we are producing a second season, a follow up of Atlanta Monster that will cover everything we've investigated since the first season came out and how modern day has responded to that.

[Maggie Freeling]

When reading reports about Darren, one of the saddest things to me is that he allegedly had an IQ of 65. He had a rough upbringing at only 10 years old. These factors make Darren particularly vulnerable. It is heartbreaking to think that he is the only suspected victim of the Atlanta child murderer who has never been found. And being in foster care, it's unlikely he has family still looking for him. It's been over 45 years and we're still awaiting answers. Here's what authorities have stated regarding Wayne Williams and his involvement in the Atlanta child murders.

[Eric Carr]

With the conviction of Wayne Williams, we have reviewed all of the evidence that's present today and as a result, we've cleared 23 cases and we had seven cases which were not closed. And as a result, we want to continue the effort and be responsive to the community.

[Maggie Freeling]

At the time of his disappearance, Darren Glass was described as 4ft 9 inches tall, weighing 75 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a yellow shirt, brown khaki pants and white tennis shoes. He has no distinguishing marks and no dental records are available to aid in his identification. Darren would now be 55 years old. Y' all, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of up and Vanish Weekly. Be sure to tune in next week as we dig into another new case.

[Narrator]

Until next time.

[Payne Lindsay]

Up and Vanish Weekly is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Your hosts are Maggie Freeling and myself, Payne Lindsay. The show is written by Maggie Freeling, myself and John Street. Executive producers are Donald Albright and myself. Lead producer is John Street. Additional production by Meredith Steadman and Mike Rooney. Research for the series by Jamie Albright, Celicia Stanton and Carolyn Tallmadge. Edit and mix by Dylan Harrington and Sean Nurney. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Byron McCoy. Original music by makeup and vanity set. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at uta, Beck Media and Marketing and the Nord Group. For more podcasts like up and Vanish weekly, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us@Tenderfoot TV. Thanks for listening.