On September 8, 2015, Rebecca Henderson Paulk was spotted at a gas station in Meridian, Mississippi. She hasn’t been seen since. In the wake of her disappearance, there have been very few developments in her case, but authorities have recently increased the reward in the hope of uncovering new information in connection with her case.
Dateline first covered Rebecca’s story in its Missing in America series just three weeks after she vanished. “I want her to be alive, but this not knowing is unbearable for our family,” Janet Henderson, Rebecca’s mother, told Dateline in 2015. “It’s baffling and scary. I don’t understand what could have happened to her.”
Dateline reached out to the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office for the 10th anniversary of Rebecca’s disappearance. “Our goal is to find her,” Major Toby Pinson told Dateline. “Give closure to the family.”
Pinson says that after leaving her parents’ home in Demopolis, Alabama, on Labor Day — September 7, 2015 — the 26-year-old traveled to Meridian, where she met up with some friends at the residence of a man named John Bentley Poisso Jr. She was last seen on September 8, 2015, on security camera footage at a Chevron gas station in Meridian.
On September 9, the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a suspicious vehicle parked on a logging road in Whynot, a community in Lauderdale County. Investigators discovered Rebecca’s 2006 Honda Civic. Inside were her personal belongings — her purse, a computer, and an iPad. Her phone was found about 100 yards away in the woods. Whynot is along the border of Mississippi and Alabama, where Rebecca was living in Marengo County. “She was just kind of right there in between Mississippi and Alabama,” Marengo County District Attorney Rachel England told Dateline ahead of this week’s anniversary. “Our jurisdiction connects to theirs, so we have a lot of overlap in our cases.”
Authorities called Rebecca’s mother, who confirmed she wasn’t able to reach her daughter. The family filed a missing person’s report.
In the days and weeks following Rebecca’s disappearance, investigators pursued every possible lead, including a search of a property belonging to John Bentley Poisso, Jr. Nothing was found in connection to Rebecca’s case.
According to the district attorney’s office, Poisso, who was convicted of unrelated drug charges, died in prison on Sunday, August 31, 2025. “I definitely think he is someone who knew something,” England said. She declined to name any persons of interest in Rebecca’s case. However, “several people who were associating with her at the time had connections to the area her stuff was found in,” she said. Foul play has not been ruled out in the disappearance.
Since the time of her disappearance, Rebecca’s parents have offered a $20,000 reward. An anonymous donor contributed $1,000. And this summer, in connection with the 10th anniversary, the Marengo County district attorney’s office added $10,000 to the reward, bringing the total to $31,000 for information that leads to finding Rebecca or the prosecution of the parties involved in her disappearance.
News of the increased reward reached Mississippi investigators. A cold case unit working out of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations in conjunction with the Mississippi State University Police reached out to District Attorney England to partner in investigating Rebecca’s case. “We’ve vamped up the investigations at this point,” she said.
Investigators in Lauderdale County have not lost hope that there will be a resolution. “We’re trying to get as much help as we can,” Major Pinson of the sheriff’s office said. “A new set of eyes to look at it, to see if they can see something different.”
Rachel England is also encouraged by the renewed investigation. “As time advances, cold cases get harder, which is unfortunate,” she said. “But on the other hand, technology advances, too. So I think we’re hoping to be able to utilize some new resources and some new technology to hopefully have a lead soon.”
Rebecca is described as 5’6” tall, weighing 145 lbs., with blonde hair and green eyes. She would be 36 years old today.
If you have any information, please contact the Marengo County District Attorney’s Office at 334-289-2149 or the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office at 601-482-9806.
If you have a story to share with Dateline, please submit it here.
