A 19-year-old Alabama woman has been missing for several months, and her case doesn’t appear to have any updated information. Makenna Joy Purvis disappeared from the town of Valley Head on Sept. 26, 2022, and her loved ones are worried that she might have fallen victim to foul play. That’s become increasingly apparent with each month that’s passed since she vanished without a trace. What are authorities doing in Alabama to help find this missing woman?
When Makenna Joy Purvis disappeared in September 2022, authorities in Alabama appeared to treat her as a runaway — which is odd since she’s a 19-year-old woman, and not a child. The sheriff’s office even issued a statement back in the beginning of her case, declaring that she wouldn’t be in any trouble if she just came home — as if her disappearance was voluntary. This might because the missing woman has a brief history of running away when she was underage in the past. A missing persons alert was once issued for the missing Alabama woman in 2020, but she was very quickly located. This time around, she hasn’t been located, and it looks like her past as a runaway has hindered the search.
The loved ones of Makenna Joy Purvis have been really the only people treating her disappearance as something other than voluntary. They’ve held vigils for her, and they stay in contact with the news media to keep her story alive. Meanwhile, there don’t appear to be any fresh police bulletins or updates in her actual case. Are they even investigating her disappearance, or do they think this adult woman is a runaway?
Chelsea Hoffman is a true crime writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. She is best known for her coverage of missing people including the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann as well as the heartbreaking cases of Dylan Redwine, Heather Elvis and many others.
