FACTS: Background on Reachelle Smith's Disappearance

• Reachelle Smith is put to bed at around 10:30 p.m. on May 16. 

• Leigh Cowen tells Reachelle’s custodial mother, Stephanie Smith, with whom he is living, that Reachelle is staying with his mother at her residence at Minot Air Force Base.

• Cowen tells Smith on May 19 that his mother’s car has broken down and Reachelle is still at the base. 

• Cowen steals a van from Smith’s residence in the early morning hours of May 22. When Smith discovers the missing van, she goes to the home of Cowen’s mother at Minot AFB, but discovers that Cowen’s mother had moved to Wichita, Kan., the week before. Smith contacts the Minot Police Department to report Reachelle missing. An Amber Alert is issued that quickly goes nationwide. 

• Kansas authorities search the home of Cowen’s mother in Wichita, but turn up no evidence that Reachelle had ever been there. 

• Cowen’s body is found in the stolen van on a gravel road at the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Minot. Cowen apparently committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning after hooking a hose to the exhaust pipe. 

• Subsequent searches are conducted, including massive coordinated searches of area parks, horseback searches of rural areas and wildlife refuges and even the draining of a portion of the Mouse River near the Smith residence. None turn up any concrete evidence in the little girl’s disappearance