Payne Lindsey Returns with a New Season of “Up and Vanished”

 

Shedding Light on Alaska’s Dark Disappearances

 

“Up and Vanished: In the Midnight Sun” Investigates  

What Happened to Alaska Native, Florence Okpealuk

Payne Lindsey returns to his investigative podcasting roots, looking into another harrowing missing persons case in the newest installment of his chart-topping investigative series, “Up and Vanished.”

In the new season, produced by Tenderfoot TV in partnership with Audacy, Lindsey takes his farthest journey yet, trekking to the rugged Alaskan frontier to investigate the disappearance of 33-year-old Florence Okpealuk, who went missing from the subarctic town of Nome, Alaska, on August 31, 2020. The community, a gold mining hub, is far removed from the rest of the United States — a one-and-a-half hour flight from Anchorage, the state’s largest city. Less than 4,000 people reside in Nome, marking it an opportune location for mysterious occurrences to take place, as well as a prime case for “Up and Vanished,” as unique conditions surrounding location is a common factor amongst previous investigations.

The season is subtitled “In the Midnight Sun,” to highlight the uncanny timing of when Okpealuk went missing from Nome’s West Beach. Each year in Alaska, from mid-April to mid-August, the sun is out nearly all day and seemingly never sets, meaning it was likely that she disappeared in broad daylight — an anomaly for missing person cases. 

It was also during those same months, two and a half years later, that Lindsey descended upon Nome to investigate Okpealuk’s disappearance. Strikingly, her case is one of many for the small, isolated town, of which 24 people went missing from between 1960 and 2004. To date, Alaska as a whole maintains the highest rate of missing persons, despite it being one of the least populated states.

Payne Lindsey returns to his investigative podcasting roots, looking into another harrowing missing persons case in the newest installment of his chart-topping investigative series, “Up and Vanished.”

In the new season, produced by Tenderfoot TV in partnership with Audacy, Lindsey takes his farthest journey yet, trekking to the rugged Alaskan frontier to investigate the disappearance of 33-year-old Florence Okpealuk, who went missing from the subarctic town of Nome, Alaska, on August 31, 2020. The community, a gold mining hub, is far removed from the rest of the United States — a one-and-a-half hour flight from Anchorage, the state’s largest city. 

Less than 4,000 people reside in Nome, marking it an opportune location for mysterious occurrences to take place, as well as a prime case for “Up and Vanished,” as unique conditions surrounding the location is a common factor amongst previous investigations.

The season is subtitled “In the Midnight Sun,” to highlight the uncanny timing of when Okpealuk went missing from Nome’s West Beach. Each year in Alaska, from mid-April to mid-August, the sun is out nearly all day and seemingly never sets, meaning it was likely that she disappeared in broad daylight — an anomaly for missing persons cases. It was also during those same months, two and a half years later, that Lindsey descended upon Nome to investigate Okpealuk’s disappearance. Strikingly, her case is one of many for the small isolated town, of which 24 people went missing from between 1960 and 2004. To date, Alaska as a whole maintains the highest rate of missing persons, despite it being one of the most least populated states.

Including interviews with the family as well as witnesses, the new season sees Lindsey go undercover in a way he’s never done before, all in an effort to bring justice to the Okpealuk family and face the grim reality of the high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous people in the United States, specifically Native Alaskans.

“When thinking about a new case to investigate, Alaska was constantly on my mind. It’s one of the most fascinating places on the planet, and yet is haunted by mystery,” says Lindsey. “Florence’s case is indicative of the high number of Indigenous and Native Alaskan women that go missing each year, especially in these tiny towns like Nome, and my hope is that by bringing awareness to these tragic cases like hers, we can properly engage law enforcement and bring an end to these occurrences.”

To date, the “Up and Vanished” franchise has accumulated over 450 million downloads and is credited with breaking new information, some leading to arrests, for multiple missing persons cases. 

I don't know where Lindsey finds the time for a new season. He is the co-founder and owner of the Atlanta-based content creation company Tenderfoot TV with his friend and business partner Donald Albright. Since its founding, they have released several award-winning podcast franchises, amassing over 800 million total downloads to date.

Beyond hosting shows, Lindsey also serves as executive producer on all other Tenderfoot TV podcasts, including “Radio Rental,” the horror podcast that transports listeners into a mysterious world with real-life scary stories, featuring the voice of Rainn Wilson as a quirky video store clerk. He has also combined his documentary skillset with podcasting, bringing “Up and Vanished” to the TV screen as a docuseries for Oxygen Network in 2020.

After this successful true-crime podcast, I suggest Lindsey star in a

new podcast called Payne Lindsey: When Do I Get To Sleep?