Monica Bennett, 15: She & Her 13-Year-Old Brother Vanished In 1989

Police classified them as runaways & only changed their case to "endangered missing" 20 years later.

This is a case I initially came across when I first launched Our Black Girls, and it continues to weigh on my heart. The story revolves around two siblings, 15-year-old Monica Bennett and her 13-year-old brother, Michael, and centers on their disappearance from Brunswick, Georgia, on June 21, 1989.

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The Family Tree

The siblings shared a mother, Deborah George, who was married to Robert George, Michael’s father. Things get tricky here: when Michael was born, Robert was reportedly still married to his first wife, so the baby wasn’t given Robert’s last name. The first wife was accepting of Michael and was said to have welcomed him into their home. Later, Robert divorced his first wife and married Deborah, with whom he would go on to have four daughters. Michael maintained a good relationship with Robert’s ex-wife.

Michael Bennett

Monica has an older sister named Sheila, and they were reportedly very close. Although Sheila was still in high school like her sister, she had married, moved out of the family’s home, and was living with her in-laws. Further, she was pregnant in 1989. The sisters may not have lived under the same roof, but they could see each other daily in school. It was sometime in early 1989 when Monica made a startling revelation—the teen told her sister that Robert, her stepfather, had been sexually abusing her. She feared returning home and said she did not want to go.