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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.
Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.
Today, I'm discussing the disappearance of Diamond Bynum and her nephew, King Walker. On the evening of Friday, July 24th, 2015, Ariana Walker dropped off her two-year-old son, King, at her father Eugene's house in Gary, Indiana. This was their normal routine. Ariana attended school on Saturdays in Chicago, about 30 miles away. Every Friday night, she'd drop off King and pick him back up on Saturday after she finished her classes.
So, on Saturday morning, Eugene Bynum goes to work, leaving King with his wife Suzanne and his 21-year-old daughter Diamond. It's important to know that Diamond has a medical condition that puts her at the mental capacity of about a 5-7-year-old, according to her family. While Diamond loves being an aunt to King and playing with him, she just couldn't quite care for him on her own and needed care herself.
Also, King wasn't feeling well that day, so Suzanne lays him down for a nap. Diamond and Suzanne end up falling asleep as well. But when Suzanne woke up about 40 minutes later, both Diamond and King were gone. Despite countless searches and sightings, as well as a named person of interest, they're still missing. This is the disappearance of Diamond Bynum and King Walker.
Diamond Bynum was born on February 18, 1994, to her parents Eugene and LaShawn. At some point, her parents separate, and around age 13, Diamond's father becomes her primary caregiver. Now, it's important to note that Diamond does have a genetic disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome.
According to the Mayo Clinic, quote,
And in Diamond's case, her family states that her cognitive development was affected, and essentially by age 21, Diamond acted more like a child between 5 and 7 years of age. She also did feel a constant state of hunger. So, at just 4 foot 8, she weighed around 240 pounds. She also walked with a noticeable limp. It wasn't easy for her to get around or walk very far. And all of these factors will play a role in her disappearance.
Now, with that said, Diamond appeared to have a very full and enriching life filled with love.
She loved pretty things. She loved getting her hair and nails done. And she went to a special education school in Hammond for adults during the week. She also participated in the 2014 Special Olympics where her family cheered her on. And one of her favorite things to do was just help other people. Whether it be cleaning with her mother or helping her stepmother, Suzanne, cook and take care of her nephew, King Walker. King Walker was born on May 11th, 2013.
At just two years old, he already had a big personality. While he only spoke a few words and wasn't forming sentences yet, he loved to dance and was always smiling. He was also working on potty training, which he decided was so horrible he tried to prevent everyone in the house from using the bathroom.
His mother is Diamond's sister Ariana. Diamond would see King every weekend when Ariana dropped him off at their father's home in Gary, Indiana. Basically, the routine was, every Friday night, Ariana drops off King and picks him up on Saturday after she attends classes about 30 miles away in Chicago. And this is exactly what happened the weekend Diamond and King went missing.
Ariana drops off King on the evening of Friday, July 24th, 2015. She then goes to school the following morning, Saturday the 25th. That morning around 6.30, Eugene goes to work, leaving Diamond, Suzanne, and King at home. Basically, Suzanne is caring for both Diamond and King. But like I said, this isn't a new routine. It's not something I ever saw Suzanne say was difficult or beyond her capacity of care. It was just how their family operated.
In an interview with Case Files Chicago, Suzanne explains what happened that morning. She says they all have breakfast, King and Diamond take their baths, and around 10.20am, Suzanne sees that Diamond is already lying down in her and Eugene's room. So Suzanne grabs King and puts him in the bed beside her, and all three fall asleep. By 11am when Suzanne wakes up, Diamond and King are gone.
Now, this doesn't immediately scare Suzanne. Diamond was known to wander off on her own, and she loved taking walks around the neighborhood. But it's important to note that this was a pretty new area to Diamond. See, the family actually moved from Hammond, Indiana to Gary just a few months prior in February. It was meant to be a temporary situation, so Suzanne and Eugene could save money to buy a house.
But the point is, Diamond didn't know this neighborhood very well. So when Suzanne doesn't find them in the immediate area, she calls Eugene. Eugene immediately calls the police. It's important to stress how dire this situation is. While Diamond was 21 and loved caring for King, she really couldn't do it without help. They say Diamond could obviously do things like feed him, play with him, and change his diaper, but she wasn't able to keep up with a two-year-old due to her condition.
Basically, the family has no idea how the pair would have gotten very far unless someone else was involved. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Quince. I can't believe that we are rolling into fall, but we are, which means it's time to refresh your wardrobe. And luckily, Quince offers timeless and high-quality pieces that will not blow your budget.
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Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free Ibotta app to start earning cash back and use code CRIME. That's I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play Store or App Store, and use code CRIME. When 21-year-old Diamond Bynum and her 2-year-old nephew King Walker go missing, their family doesn't immediately panic.
But when they aren't found within a few blocks of their home, they begin to consider that something could be seriously wrong. Now, when the Gary, Indiana police arrive, they do search the house, and they see no signs of a break-in, struggle, or any type of disturbance. Eugene Bynum told the Times, "...we believe King actually may have opened the door, and Diamond gave chase." He adds that he believes they likely just went further than they expected and couldn't find their way home.
Other family members have stated that maybe Diamond took King for a walk, something they did typically enjoy doing, and again went a little too far and couldn't make it back. So the family and detectives begin looking in the immediate area.
Now, let me explain what this area is like. Gary, Indiana is right on the border of Illinois, about 30 miles outside of Chicago. When Diamond and King went missing in 2015, there were about 75,000 residents, but that number had been declining since the 1970s. Since then, Gary has lost over 100,000 residents, and the population continues to decline.
So, by the time Diamond's father moves to Gary, there are a lot of abandoned homes and buildings nearby due to the decline in population, among other factors. Abandoned buildings and nearby restaurants become the focal point of the search. These seem like the two most likely places to find them. Their line of thinking was maybe King ran into an abandoned house or building, Diamond ran after him, and they somehow got trapped.
And because Diamond's medical condition made her always feel hungry, they figured she might seek out a meal at a nearby restaurant. Now, unfortunately, Diamond and King's disappearance didn't make a huge splash in the media right away, and no alerts were immediately issued for either of them. It wasn't until Monday the 27th that a dozen detectives scoured the area and started knocking on doors that tips started coming in.
Witnesses claim to have seen Diamond collecting cans over three miles away from her home, near the 300 block of Madison and Monroe. Other witnesses claim to have seen Diamond and King at McDonald's just over two miles from the home, at least twice over the weekend. It was reported that employees recalled giving them free food, but didn't know they were missing. As far as I could find, no surveillance footage of them at the McDonald's was ever produced.
Eventually, as the media began to talk about Diamond and King, someone reports seeing the pair at a bus stop in Hammond, where the family used to live, and there was at least one sighting putting them as far away as Chicago.
But the overall search was pretty intense. They had helicopters and canine units that did track their sense to a nearby gas station, a vacant home, and an area near some train tracks. They spent countless hours scouring abandoned homes with caved-in floors. I mean, one of these houses had a tree growing through it. They also searched a nearby abandoned school, anywhere Diamond and King or both may have sought shelter.
These searches were sometimes conducted by law enforcement, but it was really their family that basically searched non-stop for quite some time. And unfortunately, they were the victims of some pretty nasty pranks. Someone called to say Diamond and King were tied up in a basement, but when investigators went in the home, they weren't there. Someone else confessed to Eugene on Facebook, but later admitted it was just a hoax.
By August, the searches were turning up nothing, and investigators announced they were looking into sex offenders in the area. And that list wasn't exactly short. There were 21 registered sex offenders within a mile of the family home.
And as a side note, when I was researching this case, I found information about the number of sex offenders from an old newspaper. And on the same page, the front page, was another story with the headline, quote, Peeping Tom Busted a Third Time, end quote.
For this episode, I did quite a bit of digging on Gary, Indiana. From everything I've read, from official sources to just some opinions online, most residents or former residents say it's just not a great place in terms of safety. In fact, in 1994, Gary officially became the murder capital of the U.S., according to the Chicago Tribune. Now, to be fair, that was about 20 years before Diamond and King went missing.
But in 2022, Gary had the third highest rate of murders per capita in the country. All of that to say, it's just not a good situation for these two very vulnerable people to be missing in this city.
Now, Eugene and Gary police searched more abandoned buildings and even the areas surrounding the registered sex offenders' homes. Then, in mid-August, authorities do name a person of interest, and they run his photo in local newspapers. Basically, everyone thinks they got their guy. But a few weeks later, it's announced that this person was no longer being sought. So, they're back to square one.
And during all of this, the family fights for an Amber Alert for King and a Silver Alert for Diamond, neither of which have been issued at this point. So let's break this down. According to IN.gov, the criteria for an Amber Alert is as follows: 1. The child must be under 18 years of age. 2. The child must be believed to be abducted and in danger of serious bodily harm or death.
Three, there must be enough descriptive information to believe the broadcast will help. Four, requests must be recommended by the law enforcement agency of jurisdiction, end quote.
Authorities say they didn't issue an Amber Alert for King because there was no solid indication that he was abducted. Now, I think I could argue that technically Diamond leaving with King could be considered an abduction, but this is where King doesn't seem to meet the other criteria. I don't think anyone would say he was in danger of serious bodily harm or death because of the possible abduction by Diamond. Basically, no one believed Diamond would ever hurt King, so he just didn't meet the second requirement.
Now, that was my technical evaluation based on the criteria, but I side with the family and several journalists who have written about not issuing an Amber Alert for King. I believe that common sense just needs to be used. King being alone or with Diamond without other supervision for at this point over a month does put him in serious danger.
But we know how these things go. Some departments and those with the power to issue these alerts just won't bend the rules. So there's no proof King was abducted, and there's never an Amber Alert issued for him.
Which is very interesting to me because in September, a silver alert is issued for Diamond, despite her not meeting the criteria. See, in 2015, Indiana only issued silver alerts for missing senior citizens. It wouldn't be until 2018 that Indiana passed legislation to begin including those with a quote, "...mental impairment validated through a credible medical authority," end quote, "...as eligible for a silver alert."
It's frustrating. In addition to no alert going out for King, this silver alert was one, weeks way too late, and two, didn't even include King. Which at the very least you think might be a helpful descriptor for anyone who may have seen Diamond. Like hey, that's the missing woman who's supposed to be with a kid. To me, it just makes it easier to spot Diamond. It's just if they could bend the rules for the silver alert, I don't see why they couldn't bend them for the amber alert.
We've seen it happen many times with other departments and cases in the past. Either way, by the end of September 2015, they really aren't much closer to finding Diamond and King, and Eugene Bynum holds a press conference. He urges the public to keep looking for them, and stresses that the family is not interested in pressing charges against anyone who might be holding them.
Eugene also addresses an outstanding lead in the investigation. I mentioned earlier that a canine unit was able to track Diamond and King's scents to a nearby gas station, but Eugene says they haven't been able to pull the footage yet. In fact, the family and others held a protest at that gas station for the footage, but up to this point, nothing came of it. It was just this huge question mark that they were understandably frustrated by.
And to add to this frustration, the Gary police didn't speak at this press conference. Instead, they released a statement addressing it. They say that they are committed to finding Diamond and King, adding that the footage from the gas station is being reviewed. They also discuss that they are currently waiting for the results of DNA testing from a child found dismembered in the lagoon of Garfield Park in Chicago.
I can't even imagine the emotions Diamond and King's family must have experienced during all of this. They aren't sure the footage will be reviewed. Then the police say they have it and it is being reviewed. All while they wait to see if King's body was possibly found in Chicago. Honestly, it's enough to make anyone break.
But the family persists. The day after the press conference, they hold an event to raise money for the reward fund for Diamond and King. Then, after weeks of waiting, the DNA results come back. The body found in Chicago is not King. In the end, really, none of the leads pan out. Diamond and King were not seen on surveillance at the gas station. There's no video of them from the McDonald's. There's just nothing.
And as these things go, as searches are concluded and leads dry up, authorities allocate officers and resources to other cases. By the end of October, Eugene tells the Chicago Tribune that he feels like they're on their own. Quote, End quote.
He goes on to discuss the hole this has left in their lives. He says he doesn't sleep much these days. He barely leaves the house, and every time he goes to the grocery store, he cries. Going to the grocery store with Eugene was one of Diamond's favorite activities. By the one-year anniversary, the Gary Police Department says there haven't been any new developments or leads in six months. In October 2016, the Northwest Indiana Major Crime Task Force begins investigating.
But by November, they're off the case, and it's assigned to new detectives. In February of 2018, an age-progressed photo of King is released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But no new tips come in. In fact, by May, Sgt. Jeffrey Mattson from the Indiana State Police tells the Times that they haven't gotten any new tips in nearly a year.
Then, in June 2019, King and Diamond are finally entered into NamUs. Why this took four years to do, I don't know. I can tell you that they aren't legally required to enter the missing into NamUs in the state of Indiana. In fact, it's only legally required in 12 states in the U.S.,
But again, the family persists. Around this same time, they participate in the episode of Case File Chicago I referenced earlier. In it, Daisy Bynum, Diamond's grandmother and King's great-grandmother, pleads for anyone that may have them to just take them somewhere. She says neither of them would even be able to tell anyone who took them.
The family continues to hold out hope that Diamond and King are still alive. Eugene and Suzanne have since moved out of the home in Gary, but they've kept all of Diamond's belongings for when she returns. And in 2021, Diamond's mother, LaShawn, discussed what a reunion might look like, stating, quote,
I'm going to try my best to teach her about strangers and all that type of stuff about wandering off. We're just going to make up for all the missed birthdays, and hopefully we can go on vacation or something and just spend time with each other." More recently, the family has tried to bring in a private investigator to look at the case, but they say without the cooperation of the Gary PD and the case file, they can't do that. And all of their calls to ask for their involvement in these files have gone unanswered.
And while the FBI has been involved in the case, they say that they're also at a standstill until new leads come in. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where the case is today.
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So what happened to Diamond Bynum and King Walker? Well, there was no forced entry into the home.
And as far as I could find, there's been no indication that Diamond has used her name or social security number anywhere. I don't know if she had any bank accounts in her name. But we do know that she had a cell phone, which I haven't mentioned yet. According to her family, Diamond only knew one phone number, her father Eugene's. He says every time he gets a call from an unknown number, he answers it, just in case it's Diamond. But I don't know why she wouldn't have other numbers programmed into her phone.
I will say that considering her condition, it's possible she didn't know how to work the phone. Hence why they say she only knew the one number, but I can't say for sure.
And beyond all that, we don't know where her phone is. The only information I could find about it came from an article right after she and King went missing. Gary Police report that the family gave conflicting statements about the phone. According to them, the family said that they had the phone. Then they couldn't find it. Then they didn't know the number.
So, it seems like the phone has never been recovered. And in terms of not knowing the number, I feel like that just can't possibly be true. I mean, someone had to have purchased that phone line for Diamond. Now, to be fair, this was just a really short quote. So, it may be possible the officer discussing this meant that they didn't know the passcode as opposed to the actual phone number.
Again, I can't say for sure. I will say that I couldn't find any indication that the police believe this family is somehow involved in the disappearance. But out of fairness to Diamond and King, I couldn't overlook this statement. I just really hope that her phone has been recovered and analyzed.
Ultimately, authorities and the family believe that Diamond and King most likely left voluntarily through the front door. Personally, I don't think it's likely that the pair left together and started a new life just based on Diamond's condition. I also don't think they got very far for the same reason. If they really did make it to the McDonald's and these other locations they were seen at miles from their home, I think it's most likely someone gave them a ride.
Remember, a major part of Diamond's condition is that she's hungry all the time. Now, when I was researching Prader-Willi syndrome, I learned that this isn't just a normal type of hunger. It causes people to do things that will make them sick or possibly even kill them. People have discussed their family members going to the fridge in the middle of the night and eating an entire raw chicken. People eating out of dumpsters and worse.
Eugene has also mentioned that Diamond would often take items off the grocery store shelves and sneak away to eat them in the bathroom. This is how intense the feeling of hunger is. So, I could see Diamond accepting a ride to McDonald's, or at the very least, looking for food. And that opens up the possibilities to a lot of terrible things. Could she have gotten into a dumpster and gotten her and King trapped? Maybe just knocked on the wrong door looking for a meal or help?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of places to hide bodies in this area. North of the freeway near their home is this large industrial area that backs right up to Lake Michigan.
not to mention all the abandoned buildings. Another popular theory is the king may have seen something that caught his eye in one of these abandoned buildings and ran toward it. Diamond follows, maybe a beam falls, or the floor collapses, and they can't find their way out. These buildings can be extremely dangerous. LaShawn has discussed how she split pretty much 50-50 between the theory that they walked away randomly or were met with foul play.
Eugene no longer believes they're in Gary, saying, quote, We've searched thousands of abandoned homes and buildings. It takes ten minutes to get out of Gary. And we're close to the border. They aren't here. End quote. This case is so heartbreaking.
For a family to have not one, but two missing family members is just unthinkable. And it seems that despite sightings all over the country, scent dogs tracking them to multiple locations and countless searches, they're back at square one. Which brings me right to our call to action. Please share Diamond and King's story.
This case has not gotten a lot of media coverage. Most of my sources come from local newspapers in the first few years after they went missing. But eventually, the articles just stop. Most local papers don't even run anniversary stories anymore. Which, as a family member of the long-term missing, is your biggest shot at getting media coverage.
In fact, how I found this case was from an article from Rachel Looker and Ashley Lutheran for USA Today discussing severely underreported-on cases. Quote,
and found not all cases get the same level of engagement. Using 375 video posts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Facebook page from October 2019 to this past June, the analysis found posts about missing white children, specifically girls, received more likes, shares, and views than posting about missing black children." The thing is, I didn't need an article to tell me that.
I can tell you right now, this episode will get less downloads and less engagement on social media because Diamond and King are black. That's not because I'm some social justice warrior or trying to be woke. That's based on years of podcast analytics, raw data. Cases involving a white female will typically always outperform the others. And also, I know that just by mentioning this, I will get a handful of bad reviews. I
I always do. But this is the harsh reality for King and Diamond. So if me simply mentioning the disparity in coverage didn't scare you away, please share this case. Please share their posters. King and Diamond need to be found. They and their family deserve answers. As a reminder, Diamond Bynum and King Walker went missing from Gary, Indiana on Saturday, June 25th, 2015 around 11 a.m.,
At the time of his disappearance, King was 3 feet tall and weighed about 34 pounds. He is black, with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing red shorts and a blue t-shirt. At the time of her disappearance, Diamond Bynum was 4 foot 8 and about 238 pounds. She is black, with black hair and brown eyes. She also walks with a limp.
She was wearing a white top and blue jeans. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Gary Police Department at 1-866-CRIME-GP or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.
Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show in your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. You can also support what we do here over on Patreon. If you'd like to support us, please subscribe to our channel, and if you'd like to support us, please do so in the comments below.
at patreon.com slash voices for justice. And for even more content, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify.
Welcome to the Voices for Justice secret after show. I have opened up the recording studio the dogs are in. You might hear some planes flying overhead. This is our uncut after show. Now, I didn't have a ton to talk about in this episode. I feel like I really... I did put some stuff I usually put in the after show in the main episode, but it made sense to me. I'm not going to harp on the analytics of things, but yeah. I mean, what I said at the end of this episode is extremely true. It's not about...
how I feel or anything political, honestly, it's, I can see that in my podcast analytics and most creators can tell you the same thing if they're willing to talk about it. I know Kendall Ray actually recently just had a very in-depth conversation about the same thing, about how she knows her videos of non-white people, of people of color, don't do as well. And it's just a cold, hard fact.
Now, there were two things I wanted to talk about in relation to this episode. One was this Post Times article I found from December 15, December 2015, excuse me. It's called Missing Relatives Bring Darkness to Season.
Um, I don't, something about this article just really rubbed me the wrong way. And I want to say upfront that I think that this journalist had the best intentions, but I think sometimes when people report on these cases, they don't understand what these things can do to families and how it, it almost, I mean, I can't tell you what the family thought of this, right? Because it's not about me, it's about them. Um, but yeah.
If I read an article like that about my sister, it would make me feel so much worse. So part of the article is...
talking about the whole block had no Christmas decorations or cheer. They discuss how the walls are taupe with dark furniture and a gray wool blanket covering the window. It says, quote, any chance at enjoying happiness and laughter that goes with close families around the holidays won't happen in the Bynum home this year, end quote. And again, I do think it's well-intentioned, but it's like extremely bleak and kind of unnecessary. I don't like...
I don't think the color of their walls or their furniture is an indication of their feelings or mood. This just felt, to be honest, extremely performative. And I don't think I have much else to say about it other than that. It just really rubbed me the wrong way. So I don't know. If you guys see future articles that are kind of like that, I would just kind of encourage you to think twice about them and really look into it. You know, just...
Does somebody having dark furniture and taupe walls mean anything? I don't think so. It just seems kind of bleak and unnecessary is what I put in my notes here. Now, the last topic I wanted to talk about is the idea of new detectives. I was actually discussing this with one of the researchers for this show. She texted me about a case and was like, oh my gosh, there's new detectives assigned. And
The thing is, like, that can be really good, right? So the whole idea behind assigning new detectives to these old cases is, like, we're going to get a pair of fresh eyes on it. It's going to be great. But I do want to warn you guys also, I feel like I'm talking a lot about the media today, but that can also just be like a, I don't know, I don't want to say it's like false hope because a lot of the times these new detectives can make breakthroughs. I will just say in my experience, when a new detective was assigned to
That wasn't always a good, that actually was never a good thing in my sister's case, in my opinion. Every time I would go to a new detective, what ended up happening was they would just like go back to the old detectives because they never fully researched the case. I mean, some of the worst experiences I had in my sister's case were with new detectives who just didn't know what they were talking about. And
I know that these cases can be really large and hard for a new person to learn. But in this case, it came up where they were like, oh, the task force is off of it, but we have new detectives. And I guess just, you know, as you guys consume articles and true crime in general, I just would love to put that little bug in your ear and to remind you that that's not always actually the greatest thing. And that oftentimes behind the scenes, these families are dealing with new detectives who are
aren't fully assigned to the case, as in they have a ton of other things to do, which is fair. I mean, these departments...
My goodness, some of them are stretched so, so thin. But again, I just kind of wanted to bring you back to reality on some of those things. A new detective can be a great thing. Sometimes a new detective is technically assigned to the case but may know nothing. So again, in my case, after I lost my sister's detectives of 10 years on the case, I
A new detective was never a good thing. So again, I don't know. I always encourage you guys to like think critically about these things because, you know, police departments have an image to uphold. Police departments want to solve these cases, you know, either for good reasons or for selfish reasons. I mean, I don't really care how I say what the intention behind solving a case is, to be honest, as long as it gets solved fairly and it's a truthful solve, if that makes sense. It's not a wrongful conviction. Yeah. Yeah.
Again, I am super rambly today, but I just those those two things about like media coverage in general really, really stuck with me in this episode. So that's what this after show is all about so that I don't ramble incoherently in the main episode. So as always, thank you for tolerating me. I love you and I'll talk to you next time.