Marilyn didn’t think Talon had ever met that grandfather. And she was vague about their destination: she said that she, Talon, and her younger sister, Christine, would be driving to West Virginia, where her father lived. Rebecca, she said, told her they were leaving town, that they “had to move to be safe.” Safe from what? Marilyn asked. She handed Marilyn a photo album and other mementos of Talon, who Marilyn had helped raise and who shared a bedroom with her other grandson, Ashton, when Talon was there. Just over a year before, on August 1, Rebecca had dropped by out of the blue around lunchtime with Talon in tow. He ushered me inside and introduced me to his mother, and we sat down at the dining room table. Eric Burden, Talon’s father, stood in his driveway speaking to a friend.

Her extended family lives in a ranch-style house on a small cul-de-sac when I stopped by for dinner last September, there were plenty of people on the street, and lights were on in every home. Talon’s paternal grandmother, Marilyn Burden, still seems shell-shocked by his sudden departure.

All of that would change in August 2022: Talon’s mother, Rebecca Vance, had hatched a plan to disappear from Colorado Springs and go permanently off-grid. Typically, he spent much of the week with his father, half brother, half sister, and grandparents, all of whom lived together not far away in a different town.

Talon Vance, 13, lived in an apartment complex in suburban Colorado Springs with his mom and Aunt.

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