Mara McNamara

My producer Mara and I are in Bessemer, a suburb west of Birmingham.

Fierce

Within days, tips started flooding into the Sheriff's Department.

Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert.

Do you have any advice for us while looking into this disappearance?

Listen to Valley of Shadows on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Because the pressure.

They was telling me, you know, don't you know you can go to jail for this?

And that's all I was thinking.

That's all I had in my mind, jail.

I don't want to go.

And, you know, they was just telling me, we know you was there.

You know, we can find out evidence that you was there.

And just all the pressure they was putting on me.

So after they was putting all the pressure on me, I went on and said I was there.

I said maybe if I go on and say I was there, maybe all the threats and everything will end about me going to jail as a juvenile.

Because I didn't want to get up there and lie.

I felt threatened by the police because they seemed like they was the ones that was against me.

After he, you know,

Somebody put so much pressure on me and then they get to saying, well Yolanda, you know you was there because such and such said this and this person was here and I know you was with this person.