Fountain City Files
MORE THAN JUST A KANSAS CITY PODCAST
Fountain City Files is committed to investigative storytelling that brings underrepresented stories to the forefront, amplifies marginalized voices, and addresses systemic issues across racial, social, and public health contexts. Through gripping, narrative-driven reporting, first-person testimony from people with lived experience, & analysis from field experts, we aim to foster empathy, awareness, and community action.
Season One: Vanishing Point
Missing Black Women & Timothy Haslett Jr.
Set in the Heartland, Vanishing Point follows the case of Timothy Haslett Jr. to reveal a pattern: missing Black women flagged by community long before institutions acted. It’s a cinematic, urgent story about disappearance, survival, and the cost of disbelief.
Why this story matters
This story confronts a pattern Kansas City has lived with for years: Black citizens sounding alarms while institutions move slowly—if at all. Centering a survivor’s escape and the community that refused to look away, the series traces how disbelief, fragmented systems, & past media blind spots allowed violence to hide in plain sight. It’s not just one house or one defendant: it’s a civic mirror—who gets believed, who gets searched for, & whose pain is treated as urgent.By pairing lived experience with accountability reporting and abolitionist solutions, we ask what real safety would look like if it began with care instead of punishment. Season one documents harm with rigor and dignity, uplifts the people building better responses on the ground, & pushes for changes—faster alerts, coordinated services, trauma-informed outreach, & community oversight—that can keep people from disappearing in the first place. This story matters because telling it clearly is a step toward making sure it doesn’t happen again.
Help Us Tell The Whole Story
Support The investigation
Together with The Kansas City Defender, we’re telling the whole story—centered on survivors, families, and the systems that failed them. We’re an independent, community-backed team (no big network—just you).
Your support funds: Sunshine requests & records, trauma-informed interviews and stipends, transcription & safety, and on-the-ground reporting.
Meet the Team
My name is Vaughan Harrison. I was born and raised in Kansas City. I remember when the news broke that a woman had escaped from Timothy Haslett Jr.’s home in Excelsior Springs—and how the community’s warnings before that had been dismissed. I didn’t know it at the time, but this case would become a window into something much larger: the way missing Black women are ignored, disbelieved, and left unprotected.I’m not a reporter by trade. I’m a photographer, a community member, and someone who believes in accountability, justice, and dignity—especially for people who have been silenced. This podcast is a labor of love, but also one of grief, memory, and hope.I’m not here to sensationalize. I’m here to ask hard questions, to listen, and to piece together what went wrong—so maybe, next time, it doesn’t.
Creator, Host, & Reporter
Meet The Team
Mili Mansaray is a Sierra Leonean-American journalist from Columbia, South Carolina. In 2020, she graduated from New York University with a bachelor’s degree in digital journalism, Africana studies, and Spanish. Since graduating, Mili has freelanced with various publications — covering various topics from interior design to housing insecurity, racial segregation, voter rights, and more. Mili is the recently hired Editor & Director of Radical Media Initiatives for The Kansas City Defender.Mili is passionate about amplifying the voices of marginalized and underrepresented communities and seeks to create a lasting, real-world impact through colorful and engaging storytelling.
Editor, Producer, & Reporter
Have a Tip, Story, or Lead?
We’re listening. If you’ve seen something, know someone who’s missing, or have messages, screenshots, or details that might matter, share what you feel safe sharing here.You can submit anonymously (leave the name field blank or write “Anonymous”).We don’t share your info without consent.Submitting a tip does not file a police report.Every tip is reviewed by Fountain City Files in collaboration with The Kansas City Defender. If you include contact info, we may follow up to verify details. Prefer email?[email protected]
Press
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