23 years later, LeeAnna Warner case still haunts Chisholm

The search for LeeAnna Warner still turns on the same unanswered question that emerged when the 5-year-old disappeared from Chisholm on June 14, 2003: what happened after she was last seen walking to a nearby friend’s house? Twenty-three years later, her case remains open, her name remains on state missing-person records, and the absence of answers still hangs over the Iron Range community.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension bulletin still lists LeeAnna as a missing person and preserves the details investigators have carried for more than two decades. She was wearing a dark blue denim dress with a belt and orange Hanes underwear, her right ear was pierced, and she had a flower earring with a red garnet stone. Her nickname was “Beaner.” The bulletin says anyone with information should call the Minnesota BCA Tip Line at 877-996-6222. NamUs identifies her as LeeAnna Marie Warner, case MP6788, and lists her date of last contact as June 14, 2003. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assigns the case number 965221.

What keeps the case alive is not just memory, but continuing work. Chisholm Police Chief James Vukad said in 2025 that the disappearance remained a top priority, and investigators were still pursuing leads, including DNA-supported leads. Police also released an age-progressed image, part of a modern push to keep the case visible as forensic tools improve and as the child at the center of the investigation would now be 26 years old.

The family’s search has continued as well. In 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released a new age-progression image and said LeeAnna’s sisters were carrying on the effort to find answers after their mother, Kaelin Warner, died on Dec. 10, 2022. That shift matters in a case like this because the passage of time has not erased the need for public attention. It has only made the remaining evidence more fragile and the window for a break narrower.

More than 1,700 leads have been generated over the years, yet investigators still have not identified a viable suspect. That is why the case remains more than an anniversary in St. Louis County. It is a standing measure of how much work remains when a child disappears in a small town and the file never closes, even after 23 years.