Brenda Heist had dropped her children off at school in February of 2002 and then mysteriously disappeared; when she returned, there was a tragic reason as to why
A devoted mum vanished after dropping her children off at school – 11 years latern and after she had legally been declared dead, she re-appeared with a sinister explanation as to what had happened to her.
Brenda Heist was found alive in 2013, over a decade after she was last seen dropping her kids off at school in February of 2002. In the midst of a bitter divorce at the time, speculation had swarmed around her husband Lee.
Brenda’s friends and family gradually came to terms with her disappearance and were able to start to move on with their lives – until her sudden reappearance.
According to All That’s Interesting, Lee and Brenda Heist had lived a simple life in the town of Lititz, Pennsylvania. In 2002, their two children were 12 and eight, while Brenda held down a job as a bookkeeper at a nearby car dealership.
But behind closed doors, not all was what it seemed as Brenda and Lee’s marriage was breaking down.
In the midst of a bitter divorce, Brenda grew worried she would not have enough money to get by, taking a few days off work to look for somewhere to live.
The last time she was seen alive was on February 8, 2002, when she dropped her kids off at school and headed to a park. There, three strangers approached her, asking her what was wrong.
She opened up to them, and she says they then suggested she come with them hitch-hiking to Florida; a move she ultimately agreed to, without telling her family.
Over the next 11 years, Brenda’s family would hear nothing from her, after her worried loved ones reported her missing that evening.
Her car was found four days after the initial report, with Lee being pinned as a potential murder suspect. Eventually, officers dropped the case against him as a result of insufficient evidence in Brenda’s disappearance and after he passed a lie detector test.
Meanwhile, the family were left in shock as they had to move on without Brenda in their lives, with Lee now having to raise the kids as a single dad with no job. In 2010, after waiting a required seven years, Lee filed paperwork to declare Brenda as being legally dead.
He then remarried, seeming to move past the horror of what happened. Then in 2013, he got a phone call confirming that Brenda was still alive. She revealed her story, saying she had been living a double life for years around Florida as Kelsie Lyanne Smith.
She had even met another man and lived with him for seven years in his camper van.
Brenda, or Kelsie as she was now known made sure she only took work where she didn’t have to show ID, such as cleaning jobs, and didn’t stay in any work place for long. She also made sure she was only ever paid in cash.
It was when the man she was living with decided to move to Florida Keys and Brenda didn’t want to go with him that she moved in with her friend, Sondra Forrester, who she had also been cleaning for.
Sondra said: “She was such an awesome, nice housemate. She caused no trouble and my kids loved her.”
Brenda had told her friend that her husband had died and that she had never had children – both lies.
After some initial shock at the discovery, her family ultimately shunned her for her decision to walk out on them.
In the wake of her disappearance, her children said they had to endure incredible hardship, saying they lost everything as a result of their mum walking out on them.
“I can’t believe she would do that because she was a good mom,” daughter Morgan said in 2013. “She was great, but, I mean, I guess something happened. Something snapped in her. I’m not going to go down memory lane with her… I hope she respects the fact me and my brother aren’t ready to talk to her, and we both need to accept this and let time go on.”
Speaking to Dr Phil while in prison for offences including stealing a driver’s license in 2013, Brenda revealed all as to why she abandoned the family, admitting she was “ashamed” of what she had done. When asked about her motivations, she said: “I just thought it would be better if I wasn’t there.”
After spending several months in jail, Brenda was eventually released in November of 2013. She has not seen her family since she was released, instead moving home to Texas to be with her mother.
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