The Disappearance of Bethany Collins Buckles
Talking about Targeted Individuals with The Vanished podcast
This summer, I had the opportunity to speak with Marissa Jones, host of the podcast The Vanished. She reached out to discuss an episode of my own podcast, Failed State Update titled “Conversation with a Targeted Individual.”
Targeted Individuals (TIs) are members of an online subculture who claim they are under surveillance and harassment by the government or other shadowy forces. This harassment often involves coordinated efforts, a phenomenon known as “gangstalking.” It’s a deeply unsettling narrative, one that taps into societal anxieties not unlike those driving UFO abduction accounts or conspiracy theories like QAnon.
In the Failed State Update episode, an anonymous woman discusses her experience as a TI and her inability to come to terms with whatever might have been happening to her. You can hear for yourself below:
When Marissa Jones contacted me earlier this year, she gave me a name for that anonymous Targeted Individual: Bethany Collins Buckles. She also revealed that Buckles has been missing since November 2021.
Jones has devoted the last two episodes of her podcast to the story of Bethany Buckles. Check them out to hear the results of her investigation and the role that conspiracy theory beliefs may have played in one woman’s disappearance. Part 2 includes an extensive interview about Targeted Individuals with yours truly.