In the year 1984, LaQuanta Riley was born to her 16-year-old mother Pam Riley. Due to her mother’s young age, LaQuanta was raised by her aunt Katie. Her mother lived a life somewhat separate from hers, but the two still kept in touch regularly. LaQuanta would go on to finish High School with honors and receive a full scholarship to college. She was looking forward to majoring in criminal justice. The future was looking bright for LaQuanta Riley.
LaQuanta called her mother on Friday, December 5, 2003. She was asking her mother to come and pick her up from her Eufaula, Alabama apartment. LaQuanta had gotten into a serious argument with her roommate and no longer wanted to live there. She was asking if she could move in with Pam. Pam was not able to go to her at that time, so she asked her to call her aunt Katie for a ride. Looking back on that day, Pam says that she regrets not asking her daughter what the argument was about.
Katie received the call and agreed to go pick her niece up. LaQuanta packed all of her bags and moved in with her aunt and her cousin Stacey. The new arrangement was harmonious from the start. LaQuanta and her aunt got along well and she respected the rules. There was, however, one rule that Katie was strict with. LaQuanta and her cousin were never allowed to have any men over the house. The day after moving in, Katie and Stacey took a road trip to Georgia. LaQuanta was left at home with her uncle.
LaQuanta got into an argument with her uncle on Sunday, December 7. She wanted to have a man over the house and her uncle stood firm on Katie’s rules. Because she was upset, LaQuanta left the house and got into the car of an unidentified male at around 11:30 pm. The man drove LaQuanta to her mother’s house due to her request. When she got there, her brother answered the door and told her that Pam wasn’t home. He wasn’t able to get a good look at the man’s face. All he knew was that LaQuanta told him he was “someone she’d met in the neighborhood”. LaQuanta left Pam’s home at around 11:45 pm.
That was the last time her brother had seen her.
In fact, that was the last time any of her family had seen her. There was now a growing concern that something was wrong. Just three days after her brother had seen her, on December 10, Pam reported LaQuanta missing. LaQuanta was now 19 at this point and was legally an adult. For that reason, the police seemed to have a low sense of urgency with this missing persons case. LaQuanta’s family was left to look for her on their own.
After two weeks of searching for LaQuanta, there would be chilling development. Her mother, Pam, listened to the messages on her answering machine one night and heard the voice of a woman in distress. While it was hard to decipher most of the message, a woman’s voice was heard saying either, “leave me alone” or “let me go home.” Pam believes that she then heard a man say her daughter’s name before the call ended. When asked if that was LaQuanta’s voice on the message, Pam said she was sure that it was. An eventual power outage erased the message before the police made a copy of it.
Two years after that development, another one came in. Pam was told that her daughter’s name was used on the forms to rent an apartment in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Interestingly, the apartment was located in the same town where LaQuanta went to high school. Pam went to the apartment complex and showed pictures of LaQuanta to the other tenants. One man claimed that LaQuanta lived on the same floor as him. She was living with a boyfriend and had moved out just days before her mother got there. That sighting has never been verified.
To this day, LaQuanta has never been found and her family is still searching for answers. Please contact 215-STOP with any information regarding this case. The police are offering an $11,000 reward.
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