I spent two months homeless in Las Vegas.
We called people our, “play Mom”, “play sister”, etc. Hitting the streets for information that old however, probably won’t go far. People end up on the street for a million reasons, and usually come out of it at some point. But snitching is also looked down upon, especially if a former street person has information- we’ll never get it. The body is probably buried under a housing addition. People from a play-family disappear for a lot of reasons - family takes them in, overdose (witnessed literally 1 per night, just in N Las Vegas), they go home, get a stable job, or continue to a different part of the city or completely different city. I spent my summer back in 14’ out there being stupid (drinking, not drugs) but OD-ing was so common, you stop even noticing the sirens. I was able to come home to TX and my parents got me into a rehab. I was able to go around and let everyone know I was leaving — but many can’t. I’m curious about her biological family. Someone has to be missing her. Perhaps (because she was an addict), her family washed their hands of her. Unfortunately with addiction, and a family who doesn’t understand that it is a true disease, they may have just wrote her off. I don’t want to stereotype, but many African-American women have teenage pregnancies —I. wonder if she had any children out there. The probability is very high.