Christina Marchell Richart was a fourteen-year-old girl with blonde hair and green eyes who was last seen in Ozark, Arkansas, during the summer of 1999. Following the death of her father in 1996 and with her mother unable to care for them, Christina and her two younger brothers went to live with their paternal uncle and his wife, Charles and Wanda Richart, in 1997.
Concerns over the children's welfare arose shortly after, with one of Christina's brothers being removed from the home later that year due to allegations of abuse by Wanda. In the spring of 2000, her other brother was also removed from the care of the Richarts due to signs of abuse and was later adopted. It was his adoptive mother who, after being given conflicting stories about Christina's whereabouts, officially reported her missing in 2005, a full six years after she was last seen.
For years, Charles and Wanda Richart maintained that Christina had voluntarily left with a great-aunt to go to California. They claimed to have received several happy phone calls from her until April 2000. During this time, they continued to cash Social Security benefit checks issued for Christina for eighteen months after her disappearance. The facade began to crumble in early 2008 when a woman named Joann Holdman, who had lived with the Richarts in 1999, came forward with a harrowing account of what she witnessed. Holdman, who was eighteen and pregnant at the time, stated she had not come forward sooner due to Wanda's repeated threats against her and her child's life. She recounted a heated argument between Wanda and Christina, which culminated in Wanda forcing the teenager into the bathroom.
Holdman's testimony led to a federal indictment against the Richarts for making false statements to law enforcement. In June 2008, Charles Richart pleaded guilty to conspiring to make a false statement to the FBI and confessed to burying Christina's body in the Ozark National Forest the day after her death. He claimed he was not present when she was killed. In January 2010, Wanda Richart pleaded no contest to a charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, to be served consecutively with a prior 10-year sentence for making false statements. Further investigations revealed allegations from both of Christina's brothers that they, along with their sister, had been subjected to sexual abuse by the Richarts. Despite her aunt and uncle's convictions and her uncle's confession to burying her, Christina's body has never been recovered.Last Seen: Jun 1, 1999
