Residents may have noticed these new “Missing Mom” and “Find Heidi Planck” billboards popping up on the west side of Los Angeles.
Heidi Planck, 39, vanished without a trace in 2021. Loved ones are still distraught as no answers have been given since her disappearance. They’re hoping the billboards will renew the search for answers and closure.
On Oct. 17, 2021, Planck had left her son’s football game that day. She was later seen on surveillance video leaving her Mid-City home with her dog and walking near the Hope + Flower building in downtown L.A. That would be the last time she was spotted alive.
Her dog was later found wandering on the 29th floor of that high-rise building, but Planck was nowhere to be found.
Her disappearance set off a massive search across the city and local landfills for the possibility of a body, but nothing turned up.
Family members and her son, who was 11 at the time, have placed large billboards up on the anniversary of her disappearance, hoping to find some answers and bring renewed attention to her case.
“The billboards are in and around where she lived, worked and dined,” explained Planck’s friend, who did not wish to be identified. “I think the big thing for us is just for people to understand yes, it’s been two years but this hasn’t gone away.”
Planck’s loved ones said they refuse to let her case go ignored so long as her whereabouts remain a mystery.
“There’s a son who needs to know what happened to his mother,” said a loved one. “There are friends and family who loved Heidi. Honestly, you can’t really move on. There’s no resolution. There are no answers.”
“The LAPD has reiterated that this is an ongoing investigation and that there are four or five individuals who know exactly what happened to Heidi that evening,” said
LAPD detectives said they discovered forensic evidence inside that downtown L.A. building which led them “to believe that an incident occurred resulting in Planck’s death.”
In Nov. 2021, about a month after Planck’s disappearance, authorities searched the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic for her body, but nothing was found.
In Feb. 2023, Planck was officially declared dead on the date of her disappearance. Her body, however, was never found.
“We’re absolutely not giving up,” said Danielle, Planck’s friend. “This is going to get figured out. I believe that with all my heart.”
Planck’s friends and family will be holding a memorial on Oct. 17 near the Hope + Flower building in downtown L.A.