Lost Lane
34:52 Share

Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It's a big deal.

It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at StartWithHope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. The picture of New Jersey that most people hold in their minds is so different from this one.

that considered beside it, the Pine Barrens, as they are called, become as incongruous as they are beautiful. That's the writer John McPhee talking about the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey. The Garden State has one of the highest population densities in the US, but across a million dense acres, whole swaths of the Pine Barrens are as empty as the days before there was a New Jersey.

Or an old jersey. If you want to get lost, this is the place. And if you want someone else to vanish, this is the place. Easy to disappear in, easy to get lost in. A lot of weird stories down there. Almost 25 years ago, a certain TV show made the Pine Barrens famous. The Sopranos.

Let's take them down to Pine Barrens. That's South Jersey. It's perfect. It's f***ing deserted down there. We take them in the woods, dig a hole, end the story. On the evening of April 13th, 2024, 37-year-old Danielle Lopez evaporated into these thick woods. No call, no text, no goodbye, and almost no trace. The not knowing is the hardest part.

What happened to Danielle? Where did she go? Those are questions her loved ones ask themselves daily, and they are praying you may have some answers. That's my hopes that somebody will recall or remember or go through or know something that will prompt or that somebody's heart's convicted to just do the right thing.

Danielle's mom, Sue Quackenbush, has been shattered by the disappearance of her daughter. This isn't her loss. This isn't her having some mental break. This is something that happened to her at the hands of somebody else. Absolutely. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Dateline. This episode is Lost Lane.

Please listen closely, because you or someone you know may have information that could help solve this case and give Danielle's family the answers they need. Danielle Lopez, or D-Lo, as she likes to be called, is loving, loyal, and according to her mom, Sue, loud. I'm quieter, more open-minded, and more open-minded.

And I would say, "Danielle, you have to keep it quiet." She'd say, "But mom, you didn't name me Dan Quiet. You named me Danielle." That quick wit might be a byproduct of growing up sandwiched between two brothers. Her brothers and she got along so well. They truly were best friends. A tight family unit, Danielle was close with both of her parents despite their divorce.

Sue says her daughter was a good student, a cheerleader, popular in school, and maybe most surprising for anyone who has raised teenagers. Our boyfriends were never ones that I disapproved of. She made good choices. Lucky you. Sue said Danielle was very close with her grandfather and in 2011 moved in with him after her grandmother died. They were world travelers, Yankees fans, and

Cruises, everything, so much so that she had a hat made saying that she was the granddaughter so that people didn't misinterpret their relationship. The local newspaper even published an article about Danielle and her grandpa bridging the generational gap as roommates in 2013. More recently, Danielle's life had taken a different turn.

At the time she disappeared, she had suffered a lot of grief. It was quite a bit in a short time, wasn't it? Quite a bit. We both did. The trauma, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, depression. Trauma is not overstating it. When Danielle was 29, her older brother Eric died by suicide on Christmas Day 2015. It was out of the blue and unexpected.

So much so that the presents were wrapped and his clothes were laid out for Christmas. It's a hard recovery from something like that. Just more than 10 months later came another family tragedy. Danielle's younger brother Michael, a Marine who had served in Afghanistan, died in a car accident in Florida. He was 26.

And then a few years later, Danielle lost her grandfather to COVID and her father to a heart attack one month apart. Any one of those things is enough to send somebody into a tailspin. You got help. Did she get help? I tried many times and I tried showing her by example of and giving her the resources that I had. She made some unwise choices and

and relied on alcohol for coping. Sue says she could tell Danielle was struggling, so she helped her daughter into a facility for alcohol addiction. I stayed with her through thick and thin of every bit of what was going on for her and trying to hold myself together as well as her. That had to be really, really hard. Yes.

Sounds like you would have dropped everything to help her. 100%. Faced with all that tragedy, Sue says Danielle grew closer with someone else. An on-again, off-again boyfriend named James Scott Dunn. He goes by Scott. Danielle, Scott, and their dog Roscoe spent a lot of time camping together in the Pine Barrens. She met him singing while singing karaoke.

Danielle loved to sing. That was her on a night out. Today, Sue worries she may never hear that voice again. When did you realize something was wrong? I saw that my texts and calls, there's a way to see if they've been delivered. They were not even being delivered. I mean, I knew she was missing. Sue thought back to the last time she spoke with her daughter.

Danielle was camping with her boyfriend in the Pine Barrens. Sue says she sounded positive, hopeful even, about the future. She had a campfire. There was a camper near her that she said kept yelling, God is good. And I said, that's my prayers reaching you. And I just thought that was a good conversation. Less than two weeks after that conversation, Sue was on the phone again, this time with police.

reporting Danielle missing and giving them their first clue in the investigation. Since Danielle was in high school, we've had a Wawa rewards card. And so when I realized she was missing, I looked by chance at that Wawa card app and it had been used. Wawa is a chain of convenience stores and gas stations indigenous to that part of the world.

Sue noticed a coffee purchase was made on April 13th at 9:11 a.m., the morning after she had last spoken with Danielle. That Wawa was just miles from her campsite. So that's where we knew how to start. Investigators went to Wawa and found the gas station had a working security camera.

Is she on video from that visit to Wawa? Absolutely, yes. It was one of the first big breaks in Danielle's disappearance, and investigators were just days away from an even bigger one. Look around. You can find cars like these on AutoTrader. New cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay, no flying cars, but as soon as they get invented, they'll be on AutoTrader. Just you wait. AutoTrader.

Building a business may feel like a big jump, but OnDeck small business loans can help keep you afloat. With lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000, OnDeck lets you choose the loan that's right for your business. As a top-rated online small business lender, OnDeck's team of loan advisors can help you find the right business loan to fit your needs. Visit OnDeck.com for more information.

Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud.

It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at startwithhope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. Danielle Lopez's mom, Sue, was hopeful after security video showing her daughter buying coffee.

gave New Jersey state troopers a lead. Now they could build a timeline of Danielle's movements, but they still had not found her car. The blue two-door Hyundai Accent she drove was not at the campsite where Danielle had been staying. So investigators scoured the Pine Barrens. Those searches yielded nothing until they arrived at a dirt path just a little more than a mile from the main road.

It is a place with a fitting name, Lost Lane. And there was Danielle's car, lost no longer. So the car was located on May 1st. It was located on Lost Lane, which is a heavily wooded area in Woodland Township. And it was found in a large puddle, basically on a dirt road. That's Detective Sergeant Ryan Labriola with the New Jersey State Police Major Crimes Unit.

He spoke with us in September 2024, just a few months after Danielle's disappearance. Multiple items of her, of her personal property were located inside the car. Just clothing, things like that. No cell phone was found. Her cell phone is still with her at this time.

In that interview, investigators also told Dateline they saw no sign of foul play. There was no signs of any kind of suspicious activity with the car. Still, Sue feared her daughter would never be found. I have no way of knowing if somehow she was taken against her will or trafficked or harmed.

or that she lays in that forest. But what I mean is, this isn't her disappearing. This isn't her loss. This isn't her having some mental break. This is something that happened to her at the hands of somebody else. Absolutely. Sue harbors powerful suspicions and says she believes one person absolutely knows what happened to her daughter, Danielle's boyfriend, Scott.

Sue is not shy about saying she never approved of him. Tell me about the relationship with her boyfriend. It wasn't good from day one. He is significantly older than she is. He has children her age, but yet he pursued her at a pretty vulnerable time in her life. And...

She made that choice. I can't say, you know, he forced her into any relationship, but when I would get her back here from time to time or get her out of the situation with him, he would always find his way back to her. Dateline pulled Scott's court records and found he's been charged and convicted of various traffic, theft, and drug-related crimes.

He had trouble with the law. She saw the good in him. I don't know. Maybe there is good in everyone, but... You didn't see it? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. He knew exactly how I felt about him. That had to be heartbreaking, watching your daughter make a bad choice again and again. My heart is completely broken.

but I still stuck with her and tried and reinforced that I was there. But it's very heartbreaking. It was her heart I was worried about. Now with Danielle missing, she was more worried for her daughter's safety and she didn't trust Scott. Scott did go to the New Jersey State Police to report Danielle missing. And days later, he was arrested, but not for Danielle's disappearance.

He is currently serving prison time on drug and theft convictions. You think he had something to do with this, and you think he knows more than he's telling. I've written to him in jail asking, can I come see him? Because I know I could look in his eyes and know in two seconds it's no proof, but I would know as a mom. I absolutely believe he knows or directly has something to do with it. We also wrote to Scott.

In an email to Dateline, Scott said he has been devastated by Danielle's disappearance and wants answers himself. He said he was not at the campsite the night Danielle went missing, and when he returned the next morning, she was gone. He insists police should be looking at someone else, a man who was camping near Scott and Danielle. In fact, Sue says Danielle had complained to her about that same man.

Danielle told Sue that man would bother her when Scott was not around. And Sue says Roscoe, Danielle's pit bull, was himself a barrier between Danielle and anyone who might have wanted to harm her. Roscoe was truly Danielle's life. She spent the majority of her time with that dog because she could trust him. Roscoe was older. He had to be put down a month before Daniel.

I do think that Roscoe protected Danielle. Sue had to wonder, could that nearby camper have noticed Roscoe was gone and seen that as an opportunity? It is a question Sue still cannot answer, even as she learned a lot more about Danielle's movements before she went missing. Months after Danielle was last seen, investigators got another big break. You okay?

A man contacted police saying he had seen Danielle on the evening of April 13th, hours after she left the Wawa gas station. Here's Sergeant Labriola. She was seen alive around 6 p.m. on April 13th. That was the last time she was on video by these two civilians that were just driving down the road. And the state police did not have to take the man's word for it.

Because he's a blogger and freelance photographer. And he recorded the interaction on video. I was looking at the trees and I got distracted. And by the time I realized it was a big puddle. That's Danielle. On the day police believe she went missing. I was like, and it was fine until I put it in drive. And it's two minutes. Oh, no. What do we do?

The portions of the video that were posted online show Danielle walking down Lost Lane, that same dirt road where her car would later be found. She asks the man recording for help.

Because, she says, her car is partially submerged in mud about a mile down the road. She tells them, what do I do? Which is asking for help, especially from a young girl who isn't that trusting of people any longer. She says, what do I do? And they start talking about how they don't have any way to tow her out of there. But they don't say, get in. No, no.

She asked if they could push her. They said no. She said that I'm just going to keep going, I guess, as you probably hear. I just walked for 20 minutes. I was just going to keep going that way. I mean, the road is right there. All right, I was just going to wait there. And they pointed her the direction of the road. That was April 13th at 6 p.m. According to New Jersey State Police, that is the last time anyone saw or spoke with Danielle Lopez.

she was walking toward the main road. There's no way to know if she made it there or not. After that brief moment of hope, Sue still had no real answers. Police continued to actively search for Danielle to no avail. And then one evening, while watching TV, Sue was inspired to take the investigation further.

I saw one of your Dateline episodes where there was a private investigator and I contacted that private investigator to see what they could guide me with.

And she said she couldn't help me, but was I aware of Q? So I contacted Monica Kaysen immediately. We began in 1994 in September, basically because I saw the families in need. That is Monica Kaysen, founder of the nonprofit Q.

an acronym for Community United Effort. So that's when Q was born, to basically be that liaison between families with law enforcement, the community, bringing forth awareness, and just basically doing whatever it took to bring that missing person home. Families who are looking for someone missing are in a different situation than families who are watching a homicide investigation progress, aren't they?

Absolutely. You're dealing with an unknown fate. Sue says she is more than grateful for the care and support Q has shown her, starting with the Q coordinator assigned to Danielle's case, Lisa Valentino. Lisa has grown to be someone I can count on for support and guidance forever.

in the right direction sometimes when it's as simple as I just can't breathe or what should I do? I work with the families of Q. I'm the New Jersey State Outreach Coordinator. Now, I already know Lisa Valentino. Lisa knows what these families are going through because she has been in their shoes. In fact, she is still in them today. Her sister, Allison Jackson Foye,

vanished from North Carolina in 2006. I reported on that case for Dateline. Is it possible that if Allison had decided to walk away from her life, that she wouldn't have told you? No way. Lisa's sister Allison's remains were found nearly two years after she went missing. So far, no one has been arrested for her murder. Now Lisa volunteers at Q in her home state of New Jersey. In the case of someone who's missing...

You don't know, and it can go on forever, and you might never know. Right. And that's what I say to Sue all the time. The not knowing is the hardest part. I mean, I would like justice for my sister. I won't stop, but I'm at a different point. I know where my sister is. Lisa took up Danielle's case in November 2024.

Everybody in New Jersey knows the Pine Barrens. Everybody in New Jersey knows the Pine Barrens. So what kind of place is that to people who haven't been there? Well, it's huge, first of all.

And there's hundreds of people in and out of there on a daily basis. I know a lot of four wheelers go out there. A lot of hikers go out there. And I also think if you don't know where you're going or have maps or this and that could be very easy to get lost in as well. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I mean, it's an easy it's an easy place to get lost in. And it's also an easy place to go if you don't want anybody to see what you're doing, whatever that is. That is correct.

The Q Center offered a $5,000 reward for information that helps authorities find Danielle. Lisa and Monica have also helped to keep Danielle's name in the media. Shining above 295 in Burlington County is a picture of Danielle Lopez, that big smile that her mom says she is known for. You think this is a case where a billboard or a reward could make a difference?

I believe that it always makes a difference. If the information is out there, it will bring someone to come forth and help law enforcement get to the next place to search. As police and Q continue their work, Good Samaritans still sometimes show up and search for Danielle in the Pine Barrens. And out of nowhere, on March 16, 2025, 11 months after Danielle vanished...

one of those helping hands found something near the spot where Danielle was last seen. This article of clothing has not been there at all through any of those searches and was all of a sudden placed hanging from a tree.

Building a business may feel like a big jump, but OnDeck small business loans can help keep you afloat. With lines of credit up to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000, OnDeck lets you choose the loan that's right for your business. As a top-rated online small business lender, OnDeck's team of loan advisors can help you find the right business loan to fit your needs. Visit OnDeck.com for more information.

Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud.

It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at startwithhope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council.

Create an oasis with Thuma, a modern design company that specializes in furniture and home goods. By stripping away everything but the essential, Thuma makes elevated beds with premium materials and intentional details. Using the technique of Japanese joinery, pieces are crafted from solid wood and precision cut for a silent, stable foundation. Assembly takes just five-ish minutes with no tools required. To get $100 towards your first bed purchase, go to Thuma.co.pandora.

That's T-H-U-M-A dot C-O slash Pandora. During the spring of 2025, Sue Quackenbush learned a searcher had found women's underwear bleached by the sun. It could have belonged to her daughter, Danielle.

And I guess there's a chance that that might belong to her? The area was searched very extensively by the police on foot and horseback and canines and marine units. But out in the forest where she was last seen, I placed her flyer and a memorial, some flowers and a flag. That area has been gone over by people that just hike those woods regularly and keep in touch with me.

This article of clothing has not been there at all through any of those searches and was all of a sudden placed hanging from a tree. What do you make of that? Could be absolutely nothing. I don't know what to make of it, but I...

I have nothing to lose by trying to investigate every part of this that I can. Sue says police have told her they do not have the resources to test every item of clothing found in the woods for DNA. When she heard that, she turned to an old friend whose nephew is a private investigator. He is going to have a lab that has agreed to

You're going to take my DNA swab and I'd have it compared privately since the police wouldn't. Private investigator Jimmy Ramsey has decided to do more than just that DNA test. He and his firm are taking on Danielle's case pro bono. Luckily for Sue, he knows New Jersey quite well. Ramsey spent decades of his law enforcement career there. You had cases there before?

As a cop, I worked in the South quite a bit, sure. You know, Atlantic City side of the Pine Barrens is more, but yeah, in the Pine Barrens, sure. So Danielle's not the first missing woman in the Pine Barrens? Absolutely not, no. In April, Ramsey sent Sue's DNA swab and the underwear found in the woods to an independent lab for testing. He meets with Sue frequently to give her updates on the investigation.

Well, you know, Sue is convinced that her boyfriend sort of is either involved or knows more than he's saying. That make sense to you? You know, the first thing I did was look at his Facebook page and...

Man, it was an alarming photograph of him with a blowtorch. And a quick Google search showed he had recently been caught up in an undercover operation selling methamphetamine. You know, that world, the methamphetamine world in that area is not great. And she was obviously not so much involved, I wouldn't say, but the people that she was with were involved with it. Jimmy Ramsey also heard about the man camping near Danielle.

the same one Danielle had complained to her mom about. So he tracked down that man and interviewed him. Ramsey said the man told him he was camping near Danielle and Scott for two weeks, and he left the day Danielle disappeared, April 13th. Ramsey says he believes both that man and Scott know more than they're sharing with investigators.

He specifically wonders why Scott waited nearly two weeks to report Danielle missing to police. They're together every day and staying at that campsite together. So he would have been a day-to-day contact with her to not report her for, you know, let's call it one day, maybe two days, but...

Weeks out, I think that's a big red flag for me. Danielle's boyfriend, Scott, told Dateline he did not report her missing in those early days because it was not out of the ordinary for Danielle to pick up and leave at times. He said he would do anything to help find Danielle and bring her home. Scott remains behind bars on those unrelated charges and is eligible for parole in January 2027.

And Sue continues to search for her daughter. There have been a lot of searches. A lot of searches, yes. And more than once, remains have been found, but not her.

Oh, no, I've gone through four different times. Can't even begin to tell you the anxiety around all of that. Because each time you think, this is it. But I just don't know what to think. Do I want it to be? Do I not want it to be? There's no clear vision that way. But the law enforcement is very good about getting back to me as quickly as they can to let me know.

Sue Quackenbush has been through more than most of the people I meet, and that is saying a lot. Two of her children are gone. Her third is still missing. It is hard to think about taking advantage of someone in her position. That said, like many families of the missing, Sue has encountered her share of shady characters, people who claim to have information to share in exchange for money.

I was scammed horribly in the beginning. They were quite detailed, very specific about how and what to do. And it wasn't until that they started asking me for money that I went to the investigation and they were aware of very similar, almost precise wording done to another family, missing persons family. Did you end up giving them any money? No. No. You just had your hopes raised.

There's been a lot of ups and downs for me in the searches, waiting for them to occur, the scammers, the fake GoFundMes that have been set up that have nothing to do with me. It's still not going to be enough to take me down. I'm going to continue to try and find answers.

On April 13th, 2025, the one-year anniversary of Danielle's disappearance, Sue held a vigil for loved ones to gather and pray for Danielle's safe return. A local pastor gave the introduction. I know for many of you, this is a very hard, hurtful, confusing time. And I thank you so much for coming together today to not only support Sue, to support one another, but to keep Danielle in our prayers forever.

Danielle sang Let There Be Peace on Earth in the talent show at school. So I picked that song as we light candles and pray for answers. Let there be peace on earth. In May of 2025, the DNA test results came back from the underwear found by that searcher in the woods. And they were inconclusive.

According to the lab report, there was not enough DNA present on the underwear to confirm if it did in fact belong to Danielle. The New Jersey State Police say their investigation is open and active. They told Dateline they have interviewed dozens of people, but as of late last year, nothing viable came from those conversations. They have not named any suspects. Danielle Lopez is still a missing person.

The Q Center and private investigator Jimmy Ramsey also remain invested in solving Danielle's case. As Sue searches and hopes for leads, she tries to remember the good times she and Danielle had together and her daughter's big, bright smile. She's beautiful. She resembles me only in her dimples. There's a yellow ribbon around the tree outside your house.

That old song, Josh, you would know it for Tie a Yellow Ribbon, If You Still Want Me. Danielle would know that she knows that song. She's a singer. She loves songs. She would know, yes. That will remain until there's answers. Looking at you today, I wonder how you keep going. I need answers. I will not...

I will stay well to fight for Danielle. I have a strong faith and I believe this will be made right. But I've got to continue. I've got to. I'm her only voice. Here is how you can help. Danielle is 5'4 and at the time of her disappearance weighed 135 pounds. She has brown hair and green eyes. Today, Danielle Lopez would be 38 years old.

Anyone with information regarding her disappearance is asked to contact the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit at 609-882-2000 or contact the Q Center for Missing Persons 24-hour line at 910-232-1687.

Q's $5,000 reward for information leading investigators to Danielle remains in effect until July 31st, 2025. You can see photos and videos of her on our website. To learn more about other people we've covered in our Missing in America series, go to datelinemissinginamerica.com. There, you'll be able to submit cases you think we should cover in the future. Thanks for listening.

See you Fridays on Dateline on NBC. Missing in America is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Rachel White is the producer of this episode. Ryan Drew is the audio editor. Veronica Mazzica is digital producer. Bradley Davis is senior producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News Audio, sound mixing by Bob Mallory and Katie Lau.

Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud.

It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at startwithhope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council.