Disappearance of Bianca Piper

Bianca Noel Piper was born in Foley, Missouri on December 26, 1991.[4] During her early childhood, she was hospitalized due to suffering from both ADHD and severe bipolar disorder. Piper required daily medications to prevent disorientation and hallucinations.

At the time of her disappearance, Piper was an eighth-grader at Winfield Middle School. She was in special education classes due to her short attention span and repeated absences.

Prior to her disappearance, Piper's therapist had recommended her mother, Shannon Tanner, drive her a certain distance from home and have her walk back on her own, giving Piper time to deal with her own aggression.

On the evening of March 10, 2005, Piper and her mother had a dispute over doing the dishes. Having found the activity her therapist recommended helpful, Piper requested it be done again, wanting her mother to drop her off at an even further distance. Piper was last seen at 6:15 pm that evening, when her mother dropped her off at McIntosh Hill Road about a mile from her home.

At the time of her disappearance, Piper was wearing a lime green blouse, a gray Adidas hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers. She also had a flashlight in her possession.

Hours later, when Piper still had not returned home, her mother reported her missing at 8:20 pm.

Though it was initially believed Piper had simply gotten lost on her way back home, following an extensive search, authorities came to believe she had been abducted. Piper had no history of running away from home.

Piper's mother passed a polygraph test, as did her mother's boyfriend. Her biological father was also extensively interviewed. Nobody in Piper's family ever became considered a suspect.

In 2007, a multi-jurisdictional task force was created to investigate Michael J. Devlin for a possible connection to Piper's disappearance, along with those of other children between 1988 and 1991, after two missing teenagers, Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby, were discovered in Devlin's residence.[5] Hornbeck and Ownby were abducted in 2002 and 2007 respectively. The task force was dissolved in October 2007; no evidence of Devlin's involvement in Piper's disappearance was discovered.

On February 3, 2023, a septic tank near where Piper was last seen was drained. The sheriff's department of Lincoln County is working with Othram Labs, a forensic genealogy company, in an effort to solve Piper's case.[6]

Piper's mother now currently lives in St. Charles, Missouri. The investigation into Piper's disappearance remains open, though is now considered a cold case.[7] Her fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

• List of people who disappeared
• Michael J. Devlin, American serial kidnapper and rapist who abducted at least two other children in Missouri between 2002 and 2007

• Bianca Noel Piper at The Charley Project
• Bianca Noel Piper at the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
• 3750DFMO – Bianca Noel Piper at The Doe Network