Key facts
- Name: Bianca Noel Piper
- Born: December 26, 1991, Foley, Missouri
- Age at disappearance: 13
- Last seen: March 10, 2005, ~6:15 p.m.
- Location: McIntosh Hill Road, Foley, Lincoln County, Missouri
- Height / build: 5’6″, ~185 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes
- Status: Still missing — open investigation; NCMEC Amber Alert still active as of 2026
- Investigating agency: Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office
“I dropped her off and told her I’d see her in a few minutes.”
Shannon Tanner remembers the last ordinary minutes with her daughter in exact detail. March 10, 2005. Snow falling on Foley, Missouri. An argument over dinner dishes — the kind of small friction that fills a house with teenagers. Then Bianca asked for the walk.
It was a therapist’s prescription, of all things. Bianca, 13, lived with ADHD and severe bipolar disorder. She took daily medication to hold back disorientation and hallucinations, and her therapist had recommended a calming ritual: her mother would drive her a distance from home and let her walk back alone, giving her time to work through her aggression. It had helped before. That evening, Bianca asked to be dropped off farther from home than ever before.
“I dropped her off and told her I’d see her in a few minutes,” Tanner later told Fox 2. “I went home and started cooking dinner and then in 10 or 15 minutes when she hadn’t returned we went looking for her and she was gone without a trace.”
She was reported missing at 8:20 p.m. The walk was about a mile, down McIntosh Hill Road. Bianca never came home.
Who Bianca was
Bianca Noel Piper was born the day after Christmas, 1991, in Foley. She was in eighth grade at Winfield Middle School, in special education classes, managing a short attention span and repeated absences alongside her diagnoses. Early in childhood she had been hospitalized for her conditions. The medication that steadied her had a side effect the whole family could see: significant weight gain. At 5’6″ and around 185 pounds, Bianca didn’t look like a typical 13-year-old, and her mother has said that if Bianca is alive and off her medication, she may look very different from her missing-persons photos.
She loved nature and animals. Her grandmother Carol Young — “we were buddies,” she said — remembers a girl who idolized Hilary Duff, dreamed of becoming a singer, and loved camping in her grandmother’s motor home. She had two sisters, Tiffany and one other, and a close, complicated family that had moved to Foley from Lake Saint Louis in October 2004, just months before she vanished.
That night she wore a lime-green blouse, a gray Adidas hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and white tennis sneakers, and she carried a flashlight into the snow.
The investigation
The first theory was the simplest: a 13-year-old girl lost on a snowy rural road. But the searches — extensive, immediate — found no trace. No footprints leading astray, no discarded flashlight, no sign she had ever walked that road at all. Bianca had no history of running away. Investigators came to believe she had been abducted.
The case drew national attention: America’s Most Wanted and the television series Missing both profiled it. In 2007, two women at an O’Fallon gymnastics facility were sure they’d spotted Bianca; the girl and her father drove to Troy to prove to police it wasn’t her. “As soon as we saw her, we knew it wasn’t her,” her grandmother said. “The girl said, ‘I am so sorry.'”
Investigators also examined whether Bianca’s disappearance was connected to that of Angie Housman, a 9-year-old abducted from St. Charles County in 1993 and later found murdered. And they considered local felon Michael Devlin — the Kirkwood man later convicted of kidnapping Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby — as a possible suspect. Police have never ruled him out, and he has never been charged in Bianca’s case; the presumption of innocence applies.
Bianca’s father died in 2009, never knowing what happened to his daughter. Her mother moved to St. Charles. Her sister Tiffany has kept speaking publicly — about the milestones Bianca missed, about the years, about the hope that hasn’t fully died.
In 2021, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office formed a dedicated cold case unit to bring fresh eyes to cases like Bianca’s. Evidence believed connected to the case — first tested in 2005 — was resubmitted for modern forensic analysis, and the department partnered with a forensic genealogy company. In September 2025, marking 20 years, Sheriff’s officials announced the renewed push. As of January 2026, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children confirmed that Bianca’s Amber Alert remains active — one of the longest-running active Amber Alerts in the country. Lincoln County carries just two open missing-persons cases: Bianca’s, and that of 11-year-old Charles Arlin Henderson, missing from Moscow Mills since 1991.
“We still consider this an open investigation,” Sheriff Rick Harrell told reporters. “It’s a cold case now.”
Theories: what might have happened
Twenty-one years, no trace, no charge. Here is what the evidence supports and what it doesn’t.
Abduction by a stranger. This is the working theory of investigators. The reasoning is straightforward: an extensive search found nothing, Bianca had no reason or history of running away, and a 13-year-old girl does not simply evaporate from a one-mile walk. What undercuts it: no witness, no vehicle, no forensic evidence has ever been publicly tied to a suspect.
Lost in the snow. The first hypothesis, and the one the searches tested hardest. A disoriented girl, off medication for even a few hours, in falling snow, on rural roads. Against it: searchers found nothing — no clothing, no flashlight, no remains — in terrain that was combed thoroughly and repeatedly.
Connected to another offender. The Devlin angle and the Housman comparison both live here. Devlin was active in the region and has a documented history of abducting children; investigators have said they have not ruled him out. But “not ruled out” is not evidence, and no charge has ever been filed. Treat this as an open investigative thread, not a conclusion.
Voluntary disappearance. There is essentially no evidence for this. Bianca left behind everything, had no plan, no money, no history of running, and a medical condition that made survival alone unlikely. Her family has never believed it.
Have information?
Contact the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office (Missouri). You can also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 — Bianca’s Amber Alert remains active. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- December 26, 1991 — Bianca Noel Piper is born in Foley, Missouri.
- October 2004 — The family moves to Foley.
- March 10, 2005, ~6:15 p.m. — After a dispute over dishes, Bianca’s mother drops her off on McIntosh Hill Road for a therapeutic walk. It is snowing.
- March 10, 2005, 8:20 p.m. — Reported missing. Extensive searches begin.
- 2007 — False sighting at an O’Fallon gymnastics facility is ruled out.
- 2009 — Bianca’s father dies.
- 2015 — 10th anniversary; family marks it with fading but persistent hope.
- 2019 — 14th anniversary coverage; mother tells Fox 2, “Nobody else can understand… only someone who is missing or lost a child can understand.”
- 2021 — Lincoln County forms a cold case unit; evidence resubmitted for modern analysis.
- September 2025 — 20th anniversary; sheriff announces renewed investigative push with forensic genealogy.
- January 2026 — NCMEC confirms Bianca’s Amber Alert remains active.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Bianca Piper still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Bianca Piper has been missing for more than 21 years. The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office classifies the case as open, and her NCMEC Amber Alert remains active.
Was Bianca Piper ever found?
No. Despite extensive searches, national media coverage, and a 2021 cold case review with resubmitted forensic evidence, no trace of Bianca has ever been found and no one has been charged.
How old would Bianca Piper be today?
Bianca was born December 26, 1991 — she turned 34 in December 2025.
What was Bianca Piper wearing when she disappeared?
A lime-green blouse, a gray Adidas hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and white tennis sneakers. She was also carrying a flashlight.
Why was Bianca Piper walking alone that night?
Her therapist had recommended that her mother drive her a distance from home and let her walk back alone to help her manage aggression related to her ADHD and bipolar disorder. Bianca herself requested the walk that evening — farther from home than ever before.
Was Michael Devlin involved in Bianca Piper’s disappearance?
Devlin, a convicted child kidnapper from the St. Louis area, has been considered a person of interest and police have not ruled him out. He has never been charged in Bianca’s case, and the presumption of innocence applies.
How can I help?
Share this case file. Anyone with information should contact the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office or the NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office statements (via Lincoln County Journal, Sept 2025); National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (Amber Alert status, Jan 2026).
- News: Fox 2 Now, “‘You think about it every day’ | 13 years since Bianca Piper disappeared” (March 10, 2018) and “After 14 years, mother has renewed hope” (April 4, 2019); Lincoln News Now (2021); Front Page Detectives, “Bianca Piper still missing 17 years after going missing.”
- Reference: Wikipedia, “Disappearance of Bianca Piper” (retrieved Oct 2026); The Charley Project, “Bianca Noel Piper”; The Doe Network; NCMEC.
- Media: America’s Most Wanted; Missing; The Vanished Podcast, Episode 399 (Oct 2, 2024).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.