Ten years after Joseph Balderas disappeared, the details still don’t add up. In the Season 4 finale, Payne examines shifting accounts, missing evidence, and critical gaps in the original investigation. A trail of old receipts leads to a new name and an unexpected connection. As this chapter of Up and Vanished comes to a close, the fight for answers for Joseph and Florence continues.

Ten years after Joseph disappeared from Nome, Alaska, new evidence rewrites the story of his final weekend.

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From the creator of Up and Vanished, Payne Lindsey returns with a new season of High Strange. To get you ready, we're dropping the full first episode of Season 2 right here in the Up and Vanished feed. Scientists, pilots, military witnesses, and people who saw something they can't unsee.

Season 3 drops June 26th and Season 1 and 2 are available now. Listen free on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen ad-free with Tenderfoot+, subscribe now at www.tenderfootplus.com.

There has been meaningful movement behind the scenes in Up and Vanished. Because of the serious and legal nature of what is unfolding, we are being deliberate with the next update. More is coming soon.
In the meantime, I want to introduce Season 2 of my investigative series High Strange. It’s my passion project exploring UFOs and the unexplained through the same journalistic lens, storytelling, and production you expect from Up and Vanished.

If you are looking for another real mystery to dive into while we prepare the next official update, this episode includes a little preview from the new season of High Strange. You can listen to High Strange right now wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for sticking with us.

For the entire season, a few voices have been conspicuously absent; never speaking with Up and Vanished.

In this final episode, we present a recording that changes everything. For the first time, we hear directly from them. What they say adds a crucial new dimension to the investigation.

Joseph’s family deserves answers. Someone knows what happened.

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Have you ever wondered what happens off mic in an investigative podcast? Join Payne Lindsey (Up and Vanished), Dennis Cooper (Culpable), and Kyle Tekiela (Crook County) for a candid look inside making a hit series. Hear personal reflections about honest storytelling, lifelong bonds to the cases you cover, and maintaining curiosity despite external pressures. Hear raw, insider takes on the un-aired side of podcasting. Recorded live from the Tenderfoot TV stage at CrimeCon 2025.

After months of investigating the disappearance of Joseph Balderas in Nome, Alaska, Payne Lindsey presents a comprehensive examination of everything that doesn't add up.

In this penultimate episode, we systematically lay out the contradictions, every inconsistency, every conflicting account, every gap in the timeline of Joseph's last known hours. The evidence speaks for itself, and what it says demands answers.

This is Part 1 of the Season 4 finale. The investigation has led us somewhere unexpected, and what comes next changes everything.

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When New York State Troopers embarked on a high speed chase on Monday June 28, 1993, they did not foresee the scene they would soon stumble upon. Inside the vehicle they discovered the decomposing body of a woman. After interrogation the driver confessed to killing multiple women, and was found guilty of nine counts of second degree murder. But authorities’ work was just beginning. Even after 30 years, two of his victims remain unidentified. Listen in as Payne and Maggie unpack the depravity of convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin, and later sit down with Laurah Norton, host of “One Strange Thing” and “The Fall Line” to discuss how forensic science may help determine if a woman named Denise Griffin may in fact be one of Rifkin’s unidentified victims.
Up and Vanished Weekly is available wherever you get your podcasts.