The views and opinions expressed in Cold and
Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All
parties mentioned are considered innocent until
proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing
also contains adult themes and languages. Listener
discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin
-Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover
cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone,
and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali, and it will just be me coming to
you this week. I need to apologize at the top
here. So sorry we had to take last week off unexpectedly.
If you are a longtime listener here, you might
remember that I get migraines. And if you're
new here, I get migraines. But sometimes they
just really take it out of me. I get pretty intense
ones. I mean, all migraines are intense. If you
know, you know, right? physically cannot look
at a screen to edit the podcast because it's
too much. So thank you, as always, for coming
back to Cold and Missing, for joining us and
staying tuned for all these cases. I deeply appreciate
your support and understanding. I did just want
to take a moment at the top to say a great big
thank you to Melissa. She recently donated to
our Buy Me a Coffee. And it was such a kind gesture.
I know money is tight for everyone right now.
So if you want to support this podcast in a financial
way, buy us a coffee. It's on our website, www
.coldandmissing .com. And you can buy us a coffee,
which I greatly appreciate. So thank you so much,
Melissa, your kind words and support. mean the
world to us. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
But with that, I think we should just go ahead
and get into this week's case. We are on a missing
person case, and this is episode 138. And just
as a bit of a content warning at the top, this
case does involve a young person. Today, we are
talking about the missing person case of Ke’Shaun
Vanderhorst. and this takes place in September
of 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But first,
a little bit about Ke’Shaun. In September of
1995, Ke’Shaun is two years old and is living
on the 1400 block of North 17th Street in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Those who knew him remember a quiet
and shy toddler who rarely strayed from his mother's
side. If his mom Tina Vanderhorst walked away,
Ke’Shaun would cry until she came back. Again
and again, people mention this fact about Ke’Shaun.
He loved animals, especially cats. He was a familiar
face in the neighborhood shops where workers
and neighbors alike had taken turns watching
him. Sometimes it was just for a few minutes
while his mom ran to the back of the store to
grab something. Other times it was overnight.
Ke’Shaun had a sweet tooth for sugar -frosted
tangerine candies, banana -flavored taffy, and
orange and lime popsicles. You could often see
him riding his red tricycle in stride with his
mom. His clothes were always clean, and neighbors
said he never appeared hungry or dirty. But his
life hadn't been easy. Tina gave birth to him
in July of 1993 while serving time in prison
for a drug sentence. After being born, Kishan
was in a foster home until Tina was released.
He was the youngest of Tina's seven children,
and heartbreak had already touched her family
deeply. Four of her children had died as infants,
two from sudden infant death syndrome, one from
pneumonia. and another who died shortly after
birth due to complications from being premature
and drug -exposed. Tina was trying to turn her
life around now that she was out of prison and
had gotten custody of Ke’Shaun back. She was
trying to stay clean and had recently started
cooking school. Since she was attending classes,
she got assistance to help pay for Ke’Shaun
daycare, a space he loved and where his teacher
noted how much Tina loved her son. Tina had told
her counselor that she wanted a fresh start and
wanted to get custody of her two other sons back
who were living with their paternal grandmother.
Tina seemed to be on the right track. However,
in the month leading up to Ke’Shaun’s disappearance,
Tina and her boyfriend James Simmons had broken
up. This sent Tina into a spiral. She stopped
going to class and due to this, she lost assistance
to help pay for Ke’Shaun’s daycare. So he stopped
showing up. She started asking neighbors to watch
Ke’Shauns or showing up randomly and leaving him
at places, saying she would be back in a few
moments, but then leave him overnight. This was
noted with neighbors as a different behavior
for Tina. And now a timeline of events. Monday,
September 25th, 1995. Ke’Shaun is last seen at
his home in Philadelphia. There are a few details
about this day, but this is the day that his
aunt last saw him. It's also about this time
that he stopped showing up to daycare and neighbors
started seeing Tina without Ke’Shaun, something
they all noticed since he was normally always
at her side. One neighbor said that everywhere
Tina went, Ke’Shaun went, so it was weird that
he wasn't with her. On Wednesday, October 11th,
It's been over two weeks since Ke’Shaun was last
seen, but no one has raised the alarm yet. Tina's
two sons, Keith and Kendall, visit their mom.
When they ask where Ke’Shaun is, Tina breaks
down crying and tells them, quote, When the boys
return home, they tell their grandmother what
was said. The grandmother was concerned, so she
reached out to Tina's sister, Kim. When Kim confronts
Tina, She says through tears that a woman from
the Department of Human Services, or DHS, took
Kishan and drove off with him. A few days pass,
but the story doesn't seem to be sitting well
with Kishan's aunt. So finally, on Friday, October
13th, Kishan's aunt, Kim, reports him missing.
Police go to Tina's apartment, but find no one
home. It takes days for police to find Tina,
but finally, after the weekend, on Monday, October
16th, late in the evening, police find Tina in
the neighborhood and bring her in for questioning.
She repeats the story that she has told her family,
that a woman from DHS came and took Ke’Shaun.
Police released Tina that night. The next day,
Tuesday, October 17th, investigators contact
DHS. who say that they do not have Ke’Shaun in
their custody. While there is a remote chance
a child could have been dropped off anonymously,
DHS double -checks and confirms that they do
not have Ke’Shaun. However, they do say that
they have an active case with Tina at this time.
After getting this news, police head back to
Tina's apartment to question her again. When
police roll up, they find Tina being arrested
for a parole violation. possession of drugs.
Police take this opportunity to search her apartment.
Police note that the apartment is extremely filthy
and infested with pests, but they find no sign
of Ke’Shaun and no evidence as to what might
have happened to him. The next day, Wednesday,
October 18th, police announced that they will
be reviewing the deaths of Tina's other children
in light of Ke’Shaun going missing. A forensic
pathologist assisting in the review says, quote,
is this a woman with a dark cloud over her head
or a murderer? I'll just say it is extremely
rare to see more than one Sid's death in the
family. Tina's sisters express hope that Ke’Shaun
is still alive and will be found. Kim says, quote,
I hope he is alive. I love my nephew and I want
him found. I don't know what happened. I'm just
trying to find him. Tina's other sister Denise
says, quote, I think he's at someone's house.
I think she just dropped him off and didn't go
back. But I think he's in good hands. I really
do. During interrogations, Tina now tells investigators
a new story about what happened to Ke’Shaun.
That a woman offered to take Ke’Shaun because
Tina couldn't care for him. Tina tells police
that the woman came to her apartment and that
said someone had sent her because Tina couldn't
take care of her son. She hands Tina a piece
of paper with a number on it that Tina doesn't
really look at or even read later. The woman
tells her that she'll contact Tina when it's
okay for her to come and visit Ke’Shaun. Even
though this is a news story from what Tina told
before about DHS taking Ke’Shaun, Some elements
remain the same. The description of the woman
is the same, and the description of the car is
the same. In both versions of the story, the
DHS and the strange woman coming to take Kishan,
the woman shows up on Thursday, September 26th,
around 4 p .m. The woman is black, around 5 '4",
and in her late 30s to early 40s. She's wearing
a maroon skirt and a cream -colored jacket. Her
nails are done. She tells Tina her name is Virginia
Graham and she's a mother of two and married
and lives in Philadelphia. She then takes Ke’Shaun
and puts him in a white car seat and drives away
in a light blue four -door car with a Pennsylvania
license plate that started with AL. The next
day, Thursday, October 19th, police search Tina's
apartment a second time. This time, homicide
detectives have taken over the case. They believe
there is a possibility of foul play, citing Tina's
earlier statements to her sons that they would
never see Ke’Shaun again. Investigators also
learn that about two weeks earlier, so this would
have been two or three days after Ke’Shaun was
last seen, Tina visited Ke’Shaun’s daycare teacher,
Lisa. Tina was distraught and intoxicated due
to the breakup. When Lisa asked where Ke’Shaun
was, she told Lisa that Ke’Shuan’s father had
him. Tina stayed at Lisa's home for about an
hour until Lisa gave her money for food and then
she left. Despite multiple searches of the apartment
and the apartment grounds, including a vacant
lot next door, police find no trace of Ke’Shaun
or any clues as to what happened to him. Police
do get a couple of tips. One is about a screaming
child a few blocks away from Tina's apartment.
Police look into this, but it doesn't appear
to be related to Ke’Shaun. The other tip is that
there was some strange activity in an abandoned
house in the neighborhood. Again, police check
this out, but don't find any evidence of Ke’Shaun.
Tina is still in custody for her parole violation,
and at this point, she's refusing to take a polygraph
test. and will not answer further questions about
Ke’Shuan’s whereabouts. On Tuesday, October 24th,
so just a day shy of a month that Ke’shaun has
been missing, Tina tells police another story.
This time, she says that the woman who came to
her door gave her $500 for Ke’Shaun, all in 20s.
When police ask what she did with the money,
she says, quote, got high. The description of
the woman and the car remains the same in this
story as well. Police get to work making a composite
sketch of the woman since her description has
not wavered story to story. Police ask for help
from the National Center of Missing and Exploited
Children to get Kishan's photo out along with
the sketch of the woman. When they release the
sketch to the public, no one comes forward claiming
they know her or have seen a woman fitting her
description. At this point, Tina faces charges
of child endangerment. While police don't believe
that Ke’Shuan is still alive, they don't have
any evidence to charge her with a murder. Police
are charging her based on her story, but police
say that there are holes in the story. Sergeant
Bill Britt says that almost all sales of children
happen while the woman is still pregnant. He
also points out that none of the neighbors had
seen the strange woman or her car. Police thought
this was strange since there were several neighbors
of Tina who spent the majority of their day outside
on the porch. Surely one of them would have seen
the transaction, the woman, or the car. But none
of them did. Police are still trying to track
down Tina's ex -boyfriend to question him. But
at this point, they have not been able to locate
him. On October 27th, so Ke”Shaun has been missing
for over a month now, Tina comes up with another
story. This time, she says that she got high
and took Ke’Shaun in his stroller down to the
fruit stand. From there, her details are vague,
but she claims she doesn't remember if she brought
him home. The man who worked the fruit stand
had actually talked with the media in the days
before, and he never mentioned Ke’Shaun being
left there in his stroller, although the man
had watched Ke’Shaun a few times before this.
On Thursday, November 2nd, Five weeks after Ke”Shaun
was last seen, Tina is charged with endangering
the welfare of a child. A child advocate who
had worked on Ke”Shaun case says that he reportedly
warned DHS about concerns for the boy multiple
times. But DHS denies any mishandling in the
case. They say that Tina was an excellent mother
who invested a lot of time in her child and there
was no evidence of drug use at her home. They
had actually closed the case on Kishan a month
before he vanished. In late November of 1995,
so two months have passed, and there are still
no leads or suspects in the case. Police have
searched the neighborhood and vacant homes. They
have visited drug dealers and asked around, but
no one has seen or heard about Kishan. Kishan's
aunts worry that he is already being forgotten,
and people have stopped looking for him. They
offer a $1 ,000 reward for information, but no
one comes forward. On November 29th, a judge
rules Tina should stand trial on charges of endangering
the welfare of a child and dealing in infants.
She's held without bond until her trial date,
which is almost a year later in November of 1996.
So Ke’Shaun has been missing for a year and there's
been no sign of him. Just before Tina's trial
is set to begin, she pleads no contest to selling
her son. She is convicted and sentenced to two
and a half years in prison. After this headline,
Kishan's case really goes cold. I couldn't find
any additional media reports. His picture does
appear in the newspaper a few times throughout
the years whenever they show photos of missing
children. There's usually a big page of them
and he's one of the photos amongst them, but
there's no additional details on his case or
even updates on the case. Years later, in October
of 2016, so Ke’Shaun has been missing for 21
years at this point, Tina is arrested. She's
charged with murder, but the murder of Robert
Lynch. She stabbed Robert Lynch 77 times after
an argument. She then left but returned to set
the apartment on fire. However, even in those
stories of her being arrested for this, very
few of them mention Ke’Shaun. So this case is
truly cold and we have no additional clues or
evidence as to what really happened to him. So
if you know anything about the disappearance
of ke’Shuan Vanderhorst in September of 1995,
or his whereabouts today, please call the Philadelphia
Police at 215 -686 -3014. So that is the missing
person case of Ke’Shaun Vanderhorst. This case
for me, when I was first reading about it and
started researching it, just... It overwhelmingly
angered me. It just, it always angers me, disappoints
me whenever there's a child that all these systems
that are set up to protect children just fails
and they fall through the cracks. And to me,
it's heartbreaking that a child can be missing
for weeks and no one raises the alarm on it.
No one notices. Like that is deeply tragic to
me. Like as a society, it's like we should be
ashamed of that. We should be ashamed that there
are missing children, period. And that we're
not giving every single resource that we have
to finding them and bringing them home and getting
answers. But with Ke’Shaun’s case, so many people
failed him. And for his little life to have been
that tragic and this wrapped up in... you know,
misery, kind of for lack of a better word. It's
just heartbreaking and it's nothing that I would
wish for any child anywhere in the world. To
be honest, I kind of had some mixed reactions
about bringing this case to Cold and Missing.
On the one hand, you know, it is a missing person
case. We do not know what happened to Ke’Shaun.
We have no answers and we should have them. We
should have answers to what happened to this
child. However, the part of me that almost hesitated
to bring this case is the part of me I think
that is just very hopeful that Ke’Shaun was taken
by a loving family and was raised as one of their
own children and is out there maybe completely
unaware and wouldn't want to know that this is
wrapped up in his past you know like that is
something that I definitely thought about but
ultimately You know, I came to the decision that
this is a case that Cold and Missing should cover.
That while I do hope, you know, that's the best
outcome in the scenario is that Ke’Shaun was
raised in a loving home and is out there living
a successful life with maybe a brand new name
and new family and all that. While I deeply hope
that is the case here, I also know that with
all of these differing stories that were told
by his mother and these sudden changes in behavior,
that it is also very likely that something nefarious
happened to Ke’Shaun. And for that, we should
have answers. So ultimately, I brought this case
to Cold and Missing, and I think it's one that...
deserves more people talking about it, and Ke’Shaun
deserves to be talked about and looked for and
thought about. So I'm sure this case brought
up a lot of questions for you all out there,
but some of the big ones for me, you know, right
away, I believe it's five different stories that
Tina either tells other people, you know, her
sisters, her family. And initially police, it's
the DHS story. But then we also hear that there's
she told his preschool or daycare teacher a different
story that he was with his father. And then,
you know, the the other three stories that Tina
tells police that someone just came by and took
Ke’Shaun because Tina couldn't take care of him
and then that he was sold for five hundred dollars.
him in the stroller at the fruit stand. I'm wondering
if in investigations, police found any evidence
of what story is the real one. You know, in this,
in my research, you know, in police talking about
this case, it seems like Ke’Shaun being sold
for drugs seems... probable. Seems like what
police think likely happened, even though at
the time, you know, they say that there are holes
in the story and they don't think Ke’Shaun is
alive. They never come out and say that they
think Tina murdered her son, but it's heavily
implied, you know, through all of this that that's
kind of what they're thinking, that she was involved
or has direct knowledge of what happened to him.
But I just wonder, you know, is there any evidence
that either completely eliminates a story or,
you know, maybe gives a little bit of proof?
Like, we know they searched the apartment and
the apartment was filthy, which kind of brings
up other questions because others had reported
that Kishan was always clean. His clothes were
always clean. But if this apartment, you know,
was as dirty as they said, like they said that.
dirty diapers had been stuffed places, that there
were mice and rats and bugs all over the place,
piles of trash. So it's like, even if you are
being diligent about cleaning clothes, it's like
a toddler running around is going to get stuff
on him. But nobody reported that Kishan was ever
dirty or looked hungry. And then we also know
DHS was involved. and visiting it seems like
the house you know they say there was no evidence
of drug use in the house I would think they would
report or note if the house had these filthy
conditions that would not be good for a child
to be in you know it's not good for a baby to
be around mice poop or you know it's not good
for humans period but you know just you'd think
there'd be some report on that so that's one
thing I wonder like Did DHS also see a very dirty
apartment or was that something that spiraled
out of control in the last month or two after
DHS closes the case? But back to my original
line of thoughts, it's, you know, is there any
evidence that can support a story one way or
the other? You know, the stroller story of leaving
him at the fruit stand. Was there a stroller
in the apartment? You know, did neighbors see
him in a stroller a lot? I didn't hear, you know,
any of the neighbors commenting about a stroller.
I heard about a tricycle, but not a stroller.
And, you know, he's two. That's getting bigger
for a stroller. Tina mentioned that she got like
a piece of paper with a number on it, but she
never really looked at it or read it or took
in the information. You know, was that found
at the apartment, a piece of paper with a number,
anything like that? Could police locate and get
the truth out of the drug dealer where she spent
all this money that she got? We know she had
$500 in 20s, according to her. Did she go spend
that somewhere? Did she go to a store and get
anything? Or did she go straight to buy drugs?
And could you find the drug dealer to say, yes,
I gave her $500 of drugs? I assume that's pretty
difficult for the police to get an honest answer
out of a drug dealer in that way, but it's something
I wonder, like, could that be, could that have
been substantiated? I don't know that it could
anymore. I also wonder, you know, if they ever
found Tina's ex -boyfriend, if they were able
to question him and just... If they learned anything
from him, whether, you know, he has a rock solid
alibi, they could rule him out. But, you know,
he could speak more to how Tina and Ke’Shaun
interacted in the home. By all accounts from
everybody, you know, neighbors, store owners,
the daycare teacher, Tina's sisters, everyone
says that she loved this boy. They never saw
her mistreat him. They never saw him dirty, never
saw him hungry. you know, how was Tina with him
at home? Like, was that still the case or was
that a public persona that she was putting on?
I just wonder, like, what else was learned from
the boyfriend if they were ever able to track
him down? And I know they broke up, Tina and
the boyfriend, but when did he last see Ke’Shaun
and under what circumstances? I also assume that
the reopening of the other children who died
Tina's other children who died didn't bring about
any new information I think if any of those deaths
had seemed suspicious in the least that they
would have brought additional charges to Tina
if they could prove you know like a murder charge
so I'm assuming nothing additional was found
in those reports but I would be curious just
What the final conclusion was, you know, was
it inconclusive? Was it completely ruled out
that there was foul play in these deaths? That
is something that I would be curious about. Really,
it's just really easy to think about Ke’Shaun.
And on our Instagram, you know, we'll have pictures
of him, but he's just like this. very smiling
toddler like just his face really lights up when
he smiles and he's so easy to like remember in
that way like he's just very memorable and so
it really breaks my heart that we don't know
what happened to him and you know he has brothers
that were very upset and you know I'm sure traumatized
by everything surrounding this. So, you know,
I'm sure they would like to know what happened
to their brother as well. My hope in this case
is that we get answers, of course, to what happened
to Kishan. But if we don't, if we never do, then
I hope in this case that Kishan, like I mentioned
at the beginning, was taken in by a loving family.
who treated him as one of their own children,
and he is living a successful and happy life.
That might be a pipe dream, but it's one that
I really hope is true here. And, you know, I
think there is a slim possibility that that could
be the case, that he could be out there living
a very meaningful life. But again, if you know
anything about the disappearance of Ke’Shaun
in September of 1995 or his whereabouts today,
please call the Philadelphia Police at 215 -686
-3014. Like I mentioned, we will have pictures
of Ke’shaun on our Instagram. We will also have
an age progress photo. This would be his age
at 23 years old. And then we also will have the
suspect sketch of the woman who reportedly came
and took... Keishon, according to Tina. So all
of that will be up on our Instagram, at coldandmissing.
If you're not following us already, I really
recommend that you follow us on Instagram. We
post current active missing person cases, you
know, to get the word out there, to share the
word. And then if we ever need to take a week
off because... life is getting in the way, we
always post an update on our Instagram. So you
can always find that there. If you could take
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is helpful but truly thank you so much if you
take the time to do that or have already taken
the time it it really means a lot to me And then
also our website, www .coldandmissing .com. If
you wanted to buy us a coffee, you can do that
there. Or if you want to find all our old episodes,
it's all up on there along with the transcripts.
So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing,
the official transcripts with correct spellings
of names and things like that can be found on
our website. I have no control over the transcripts
that are uploaded or done automatically by podcast
players, but the officials are on our website,
www .coldandmissing .com. That's all I have for
you today. Thank you so much for listening to
Cold and Missing, for coming back, for joining
me again. I always appreciate you. Have a good
week and stay safe, y 'all.