Missing Girl Mystery: Teen’s Mom Gets Chilling Call, ‘I Hid The Body’ — Then Drama Takes A Twist

A teen girl who went missing on Tuesday is now at the center of a bizarre mystery — a mystery that at least so far seems to have a happy ending, but police say there are more details to come. But for almost 48 hours, the mom of 16-year-old Kiaira Burris was put through the kind of terror that happens to most mothers only in their nightmares.

Kiaira disappeared on Tuesday afternoon. She was last seen in the parking lot of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Versailles, Missouri, a small city of about 2,500 people located approximately 125 miles southeast of Kansas City.

According to the police account, the teen girl was seen carrying a backpack that was believed to contain clothing. She got into a car with an unidentified man — and then drove away, leaving her mother, Shyla Henderson, in a panic when her daughter failed to come home.

The mystery only deepened when a report came in around 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening that someone at a home in Columbia, Missouri, almost 70 miles away, spotted Kiaira — or at least someone who looked like her — after police issued an “endangered person alert.”

But the witnesses in Columbia had no further useful information. Or if they did, they wouldn’t give it to police. They didn’t know who the missing girl was traveling with — and they didn’t know where she was going.

And then, at 9:30, the strangest and most frightening development in the missing girl’s story took place, a development that only deepened the anguish felt by distraught mom Shyla Henderson.

The phone rang, and Henderson believed that she heard her daughter on the other end of the line. But the call came from an unknown number, and her daughter was crying.

And then a male voice came on the line and spoke one chilling phrase.

“I hid the body.”

The man repeated the horrifying words several times — and then hung up.

But whoever it was hadn’t finished tormenting the mom. At 2 a.m., Shyla Henderson says she received a text message that appeared to be from her daughter’s account. In the text, Kiaira — or whoever sent it, or forced her to send it — told her mom that everything was fine and that she was safe at home.

But when Henderson and other family members looked around her house, Kiaira was nowhere to be found.

And entire day went by — and then a final twist. And this time, it was good news. For real.

On Thursday morning, the missing girl was found. According to police, Kiaira Burris was located — unharmed and apparently healthy — in a motel in Mexico, Missouri, a town about 90 miles northeast of Versailles and 20 miles outside of Columbia, where the teen was last spotted.

What happened? Police aren’t saying — yet. They were searching for a man they considered a suspect, but when he was located, police say, they were able to clear him. The only other lead they have is a report that Kiaira was seen in a gray Chevy Malibu with tinted windows and some front end damage.

Reportedly, she was in the car with two men and at one point, she got out and asked a stranger for money.

Was the now no-longer-missing girl kidnapped? Did she run away? Who made the heart-stopping phone call, or sent the strange text message? Was the whole episode a cruel prank, not unlike the so-called “Game of 72,” in which teens try to disappear for three days? Police say more details should be coming soon.

[Image: Missouri State Police Handout]