The Haunting Disappearance of Stephanie Crane

The 9-year-old vanished from a small Idaho town while walking home from a bowling alley in 1993.

When the dismissal bell rang at Challis Elementary School on the afternoon of Monday, October 11, 1993, 9-year-old Stephanie Crane and some of her classmates walked down the street to Challis Lanes, where they participated in a weekly bowling league. Her mother, Sandi Crane, met her there around 4:00 pm and gave her money to buy a snack; Stephanie promised she would go straight home once she was done bowling. She and her friends spent the next hour or so bowling a few games and ordering food from the snack bar. By 4:45 pm, all of the children had finished bowling and started to go their separate ways.

The mother of one of Stephanie’s classmates saw her walking through the parking lot and asked if she needed a ride, but Stephanie told her she was fine. The 9-year-old was used to walking; her home was just 500 yards away from the bowling alley. She had to cross a small creek to get there, and when her friend’s mother last saw her, Stephanie was headed towards the small footbridge that led over Garden Creek.

Stephanie’s best friend, Brandi Bennetts, had been picked up at the bowling alley by her mother. As they pulled out of the parking lot, they noticed Stephanie waiting to cross Highway 93. Since this was in the opposite direction of her home, Brandi’s mom stopped the car and asked if Stephanie needed a ride somewhere. Stephanie told her that she was just running back to the elementary school because she had left her backpack on the soccer field; she declined the invitation of a ride, assuring Brandi and her mother that she was just going to retrieve her bag and then walk straight home.

Although Challis, Idaho, was the largest city in Custer County, it was tiny by most standards. Home to around 800 people, it was the kind of place where none of the residents ever bothered to lock their doors. Violent crime was almost non-existent; for children, it was a kind of utopia where they were allowed to roam around freely as long as they were home in time for dinner. All of this would change on the day Stephanie left the bowling alley to get her backpack, because at some point during her short walk, she vanished and was…

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