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The mother of Andi Wagner, a missing 25-year-old Indiana woman who disappeared nearly one year ago, is still pleading for answers regarding her daughter's whereabouts.
Wagner vanished from Evansville, Indiana, around Aug. 6, 2022, when she was 24, and has not been heard from since.
"I always said Evansville’s going to swallow her whole," Wagner's mother, Elane Garcia, told Fox News Digital while holding back tears.
Police believe she was last seen in Oakland City, Indiana, about 40 minutes south of Evansville on the border of Kentucky, or Newburgh, which is about 20 minutes west of Evansville.
"I always said Evansville’s going to swallow her whole," Andi Wagner's mother, Elane Garcia, told Fox News Digital while holding back tears. (Elane Garcia)
Garcia initially moved to Texas several years ago, when Wagner was just entering adulthood, because she "didn't like what was going on in Evansville." She said she tried to convince Wagner to move with her, but she was insistent upon staying in her hometown near her father, grandparents and friends.
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But in the years that followed, Wagner got caught up in a crowd of people who used drugs, her mom said.
Police believe Andi Wagner was last seen in Oakland City, Indiana, about 40 minutes south of Evansville on the border of Kentucky, or Newburgh, which is about 20 minutes west of Evansville. (Elane Garcia)
"I saw a change in her. She didn’t want to play softball anymore. She didn’t want to work anymore. She was doing strange things… like dozing off," her mother recalled. "…We would FaceTime each other, and I could see it. She said she wanted to move to Texas with me, and she didn't want to wake up in pain every morning."
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So, Garcia and her eldest daughter made plans to live together in Texas. She was going to move down in August, but two weeks before the move, she vanished.
"It wasn't a coincidence," her mother said.
Elane Garcia does not think her daughter's disappearance from Evansville, Indiana, two weeks before she planned to move to Texas, was a "coincidence." (Elane Garcia)
Wagner said her daughter was "excited" to move to Texas and told lots of friends and family about her plans. Garcia speculates that someone may have found out about her move and decided to hurt her daughter before she had a chance to leave.
Wagner's sister, Alix, who lived in Evansville at their grandparents' house at the time of her sister's disappearance, briefly saw Wagner the morning of Aug. 6 when she stopped by the house and then left minutes later. That was the last day anyone had heard from or seen the then-24-year-old.
Garcia believes Wagner was with an ex-boyfriend just before she vanished.
Andi Wagner's sister, Alix, who lived in Evansville at their grandparents' house at the time of her sister's disappearance, briefly saw Wagner the morning of Aug. 6 when she stopped by the house and then left minutes later. (Elane Garcia)
Six days later, on Aug. 12, Wagner's family reported her missing to the Evansville Police Department (EPD).
EPD Sgt. Anna Gray told Fox News Digital that Wagner is still considered a missing person, and there is an open and active investigation into her disappearance with a lead detective assigned to the case.
Gray said that due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, EPD could not publicly share information about any potential leads.
Elane Garcia has moved back to Evansville to search for her daughter or track down any leads regarding her whereabouts. (Elane Garcia)
Garcia says she can't remember the last time police reached out to her directly. She has received tips from people on social media and has since moved from Texas back to Evansville to take matters into her own hands and search for her daughter or any leads regarding her whereabouts.
She thinks her daughter's drug addiction has led police to possibly overlook her disappearance as an overdose despite the fact that her family has not received any answers yet.
Andi Wagner is described as a White woman with brown hair and brown eyes, standing 5-foot-4 and weighing about 115 pounds. (Elane Garcia)
She said the process has been "emotional" and "exhausting."
"I just want people to keep sharing her photo," Garcia said when asked if she had a message for the public.
Wagner is described as a White woman with brown hair and brown eyes, standing 5-foot-4 and weighing about 115 lbs. Authorities are asking anyone with information regarding Wagner's whereabouts to contact the Evansville Police Adult Investigations Unit at 812-436-7979.
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