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 a moment to rate and review us in your podcast app, that would mean the world to us. It really helps others find our podcast. I know we've gotten some lovely reviews recently of people who are just finding the podcast and going back and binging old episodes. So thank you if you're new here
and maybe leave us a review. Five stars. really feeds the algorithm machine so if you would be so kind to give us five and a written review 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.