In the summer of 1994, the small town of Dry Creek, Ohio, was a place where kids played until the streetlights flickered on and neighbors left their doors unlocked. But on June 4, that sense of safety shattered when Raymond Bailey, a 68-year-old grandfather, and his six-year-old granddaughter, Emily, vanished from their backyard while playing Frisbee. The gate was locked, the grass undisturbed, and no one heard a scream. For 15 years, their disappearance haunted the town, until a rusted shed revealed a red Frisbee, a pair of tiny shoes, and a truth so dark it would unravel a family’s past and expose a predator who’d been hiding in plain sight.
Beth Bailey, Emily’s mother, had moved back to her father’s home after a bitter divorce from Steven Miller, Emily’s father. Raymond, a retired sawmill worker with a gentle smile and thick glasses, doted on Emily, spoiling her with lemonade and backyard games. That afternoon, Beth watched them toss a red Frisbee from the kitchen window, laughing as it grazed the mailbox. She stepped away for mere minutes to switch the laundry, but when she returned, the yard was empty. The Frisbee, Emily’s shoes, and Raymond’s glasses were gone. Beth’s desperate calls echoed through the pines, but no answer came.
The sheriff’s department searched the narrow woods behind the house, a strip of pines ending at a barbed wire fence. Neighbors combed the fields, dogs sniffed the trails, but found nothing. Rumors swirled: maybe Raymond had a dizzy spell, or Emily chased the Frisbee too far. Some whispered about Steven, who’d left town days before, nursing grudges from a custody battle. By September, the case was cold, the missing posters faded, and Beth was left standing in the yard each June 4, clutching Emily’s stuffed rabbit, willing her family to return.
In 2009, a young couple, the Wilsons, bought the old Bailey house at auction, drawn by its wide yard and low price. Their first day, they broke open the shed’s rusted padlock, revealing cobwebs, broken tools, and a weathered table holding Emily’s blue tennis shoes with rainbow laces, Raymond’s smudged glasses, and the red Frisbee with its telltale scuff. Beneath the table, a shallow mound of dirt hinted at something buried. The Wilsons called the sheriff, and Deputy Mike Henley, a rookie during the 1994 search, felt a chill as he recognized the Frisbee. The mound concealed a wooden box filled with yellowed papers, receipts, and a photograph of Raymond and Emily in the yard, with a shadowy figure in an army surplus coat at the edge—timestamped 1:50 p.m., minutes before their last sighting.
Mike, now 38, read Raymond’s handwritten note: If you find this, I didn’t want this for Emily. I tried. God help me. I tried. Receipts for lumber and a pawned rifle, paired with the photo, pointed to a plan gone wrong. Beth, contacted up north, returned to Dry Creek, identifying the coat as Steven’s. The trail led to Carter’s old property, a neighbor Raymond had feuded with over a fence line, who’d vanished in 1993. In Carter’s ruined house, they found Raymond’s writing on a nailed-shut door: I tried. A brass key marked “CSA” unlocked a storage unit, revealing Steven’s camper, filled with Polaroids of Emily, a rusted revolver, and a note: 4 days. Emily had been alive, held in the camper, for at least four days after her disappearance.
An 8mm film from the camper showed Emily, scared and silent, wrapped in Steven’s coat, and Raymond confronting someone off-camera. The shed’s wall bore the words Help her. Mike realized Raymond hadn’t wandered off—he’d tried to save Emily from Steven, who’d used the custody fight as a motive for revenge. A chilling phone call warned Mike against opening the shed, hinting Steven was still near. At Dry Creek, they found his trailer, where Steven, haggard and defiant, claimed Emily was “gone” but not buried. A struggle revealed a revolver, and Steven’s cryptic words—Dig, same place he tried—led them back to the Bailey yard.
Near the swing set, they dug, finding Emily’s stuffed rabbit and a shoe, but no remains. Beth clutched the rabbit, her grief raw, as Mike realized Steven had hidden Emily, and Raymond had buried evidence to protect her, hoping someone would find it. Steven was arrested, charged with kidnapping and suspected murder, though no bodies were found. The case remained unresolved, but Beth knew her daughter and father were out there, their story etched in the Frisbee, the shed, and the secrets Steven couldn’t bury deep enough.
Beth returned to Dry Creek, living near the old house, visiting the swing set where Emily once laughed. Mike, haunted by the silhouette he saw that night, kept the case file open, knowing Steven’s confession was only half the truth. The red Frisbee, now in evidence, sat as a reminder that some mysteries linger, but the love of a family, and a grandfather’s desperate fight, could still shine through the darkest dirt.