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Missing in the shadows: Milwaukee teen missing nearly 4 years
Joniah Walker remains missing nearly four years after disappearing from Milwaukee at the age of 15, with her family still seeking answers.
MILWAUKEE - During Black History Month, FOX6 News is honoring the stories that helped build this country, while also shining a light on the ones too often left untold.
Those stories include Black girls and women who vanish, and whose disappearances rarely make headlines. In Milwaukee, one of those names is Joniah Walker. She was just 15 years old when she went missing in the summer of 2022. Nearly four years later, her family is still waiting and searching for answers.
"I miss my baby"
The backstory:
Walker was last seen on June 23, 2022. Surveillance video shows her walking near E. Reservoir Avenue and N. Buffum Street, wearing a large camping backpack. It’s just a three-minute walk from the apartment building where she lived with her mother.
Then — nothing. No confirmed sightings. No trace. Walker's father, Jonathan Walker, said the silence has been devastating.
"I miss my baby," Jonathan Walker said. "I don’t have nobody to call for my pancakes."
Jonathan Walker
Those pancakes, once a small, familiar comfort, are now a reminder of what’s missing.
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"You got all these thoughts running through your mind," Walker said. "You don’t know if she’s alive, if she’s dead, if she’s happy… or suffering. And that was my baby."
The day she disappeared
Dig deeper:
Joniah Walker had recently started a new job. Her father was supposed to take her to get a work permit that afternoon. When he arrived around 3:30 p.m., Joniah wasn’t answering her phone. By 5 p.m., her mother said she had a painful gut feeling.
"That was just an hour," she said. "I knew something was terribly wrong."
She began calling everyone — family, friends, Joniah’s godmother. One theory was that Joniah might be at Summerfest, which had just opened that day.
Her mother said she knew immediately that wasn’t true.
A mother holding on
What they're saying:
Because of strange and concerning phone calls over the years, Joniah’s mother asked that FOX6 only use her last name: Howard.
She still lives in the same apartment—near Holton Street and East Brown Street—where Joniah lived before disappearing.
Joniah Walker
"Something keeps telling me to stay here," she said. "This is where she’s going to come back."
FOX6's Bria Jones asked Howard what she believed happened to Joniah.
Howard responded, "I believe she was, I'm not going to say that, but I know she was lured away online, talking to somebody online that she didn't have no business talking to, and they tricked her."
She said Joniah struggled during the pandemic, had difficulty in school, and had a history of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Joniah Walker
"I have given everything over to the God that I believe in, and he’s given me peace knowing my hope stands that she still comes home," said Howard.
Before she vanished, Howard said Joniah tried to erase her digital footprint.
"On the phone bill, it only looked like she was talking to family," she said. "But she was talking to people on apps."
"We were left searching alone"
What they're saying:
Joniah’s family said they did not feel urgency from investigators in the critical early months after her disappearance — when experts say time matters most.
They say they weren’t contacted for an interview or follow-up until eight months later.
Joniah Walker
"They never came to my house. They never got photos of her," Howard said. "That was the first and only time."
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The surveillance video now publicly associated with Joniah’s case was something Howard said her family was able to obtain while canvassing their neighborhood. It shows Joniah walking away while wearing a large camping-style backpack.
Howard recalls questioning her daughter about the backpack weeks earlier.
"I asked her why she needed a bag so big," she said. "She told me it was for camping."
Where the investigation stands
What we know:
Milwaukee police say Joniah’s whereabouts remain unknown.
She is one of 36 long-term missing persons cases currently under investigation by the Milwaukee Police Department.
Investigator Jamie Sromalla, who now oversees missing persons cases, said there have been several leads — some as recent as this month — but none have confirmed Joniah’s location.
"I just hope that she’s safe," Sromalla said. "And I want her to know that there are people who love her and want her to come home."
Investigator Jamie Sromalla
Police say Joniah has not been classified as a critical missing person, a designation that can affect how resources are deployed. Investigators say she does not meet the criteria.
MPD'S CRITERIA FOR CRITICAL MISSING
C. CRITICAL MISSING A person who has been reported missing and meets any of the following criteria:
1. The missing person has a physical, mental, or cognitive (Dementia, Alzheimer’s) disability, drug dependency or other at-risk issue, which subjects themselves or others to danger. District shift commanders shall notify a Criminal Investigation Bureau supervisor at extension who will make the final determination to investigate as a critical or non-critical missing. (WILEAG 6.1.5.4)
2. There is reasonable suspicion to believe the disappearance of the missing person is not voluntary and/or the missing person is the victim of foul play.
3. The missing person has a medical condition that requires lifesaving medication or procedures and it is believed the missing person does not have access to those necessities.
4. The missing person is missing after a disaster, but not confirmed to be dead (e.g., drowning, explosion).
5. The missing person is age 11 years or younger.
6. The missing person is under the age of 18 and has their own minor child in their custody.
7. The missing person is suicidal.
8. The missing person is a military veteran and meets the criteria for a Green Alert under SOP 180.50(A).
9. The missing person meets the criteria for a Missing Child Alert under SOP 180.55(A).
Howard recently met with Sromalla, who was not the original detective on the case. While she remains hopeful, she believes early investigators lacked urgency and compassion.
"If it was a little white girl," Howard said, "I believe they would have done something different.
A bigger pattern
What we know:
That belief has a name: Missing White Woman Syndrome — a term coined by late journalist Gwen Ifill to describe the disproportionate media attention given to missing white women compared to women of color.
Through an open records request, FOX6 learned that from 2020 to 2025, Milwaukee police received more than 17,800 missing persons reports.
Nearly 73 percent involved Black individuals. That's nearly twice the percentage of Black residents in the city.
"That's not the first thing I look at when I'm in these investigations. Especially as someone of color, that is not my first priority. I look at the facts, I look at what's been reported, and I investigate them all the same," said Sromalla.
State Representative Shelia Stubbs said the disparity is real and documented.
"Sometimes people are pushing back not believing them, sometimes because they're Black. They're not being taken seriously. And again, I go back to what the stats are. The media is four times less likely to report," Stubbs said.
State Representative Shelia Stubbs
Stubbs has spent years pushing for a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force, which would examine why Black women and girls are disproportionately impacted by violence.
The faces behind the cause include:
- Sade Robinson, murdered and dismembered in Milwaukee in 2024
- Lasheaky Hill, missing from Racine since 2023
- Joniah Walker, missing from Milwaukee since 2022
Joniah Walker
"That breaks my heart how many more victims in the state," Stubbs said. "How many more Black girls, how many more Black moms must become missing or murdered before we do something?"
Beyond the debate
What's next:
While national cases like Gabby Petito’s disappearance in 2021 drew widespread attention and public outcry.
One of the most well known examples of the Missing White Woman Syndrome came in 2021 — the case of Gabby Petito.
National headlines and a massive social media response brought amplified attention to the case that Stubbs said often lacks for people of color.
"Her [Gabby Petito's] father, specifically, who continues to advocate and say, yeah, there are Black missing girls and women at the same time Gabby was missing, he realized there's in our country. And I think our country is still divided," said Stubbs.
Beyond the debate about who gets the spotlight, for Joniah’s family, this isn’t about comparison or race. It’s about answers. It’s about closure.
"I just want her back," Jonathan Walker said. "I don’t care… even if she’s not alive. I just want to know."
And if Joniah can hear him:
"I love you," he said. "I wish you’d come home. And I’m waiting."
Nearly four years later, Joniah Walker remains missing — a daughter still lost in the shadows.
Call with tips
What you can do:
If you have any information on the Joniah Walker case, you are urged to contact the Milwaukee Police Department at 414-935-7405.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.