The first season premiered on August 7, 2016, and investigated the case of Tara Grinstead,[1] a beauty queen and school teacher who disappeared in Ocilla, Georgia.

In 2016, documentary filmmaker Payne Lindsey of Tenderfoot TV studios began researching the Tara Grinstead cold case as a possibility for a new film.

[5] Soon after the podcast's release it made the top charts and began receiving attention and notoriety within the small Ocilla, Georgia community.

In the statement by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announcing the arrest of Ryan Alexander Duke in connection to the murder, the GBI's spokesperson thanked the media for keeping the public interested in the case.

[10]  In late September 2018, the Reisinger case was handed from Saguache County Sheriff's Office to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

[11]  While season 2 of Up and Vanished went on an unannounced hiatus late 2019, host Payne Lindsey has stated that he's continued to investigate the case and has been documenting the whole time.