After more than a year of wondering, a family in North Carolina, finally has an answer to the whereabouts of their missing relative. Dana Leigh Mustian, 33, went missing in November 2023. Officials conducted several land and water searches throughout 2024.
But on January 30, 2025, over a year after her disappearance, a dive team in Vance County found human remains. Later, a medical examiner determined that the remains belonged to Mustian.
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Mustian never showed up to her daughter’s 6th birthday party, family, and friends told CBS17. The party took place over the first weekend in December. Her loved ones tried to call her, but there was no response. By December 3, those calls were going straight to voicemail, People reports. “It’s like she just disappeared from the face of the Earth,” sister-in-law Megan Mustian told NewsNation. On December 4, Mustian’s father reported her missing.
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Mustian’s father was the last person to see her alive on November 30, when he dropped her off at her home in Warrenton. She told him she loved him and would see him the next day. Tragically, that was not true. The search for Mustian was intense and long.
“Warren County, it’s very rural. There’s a lot of fields and trees,” Dana’s brother, who wished to remain anonymous, told WNCN in January 2024. “Without more information to help us narrow down where she might be at, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Those close to Mustian described her as the “life of the party.” “She knew everybody, everybody knew her,” Megan Mustian told WNCN. As such, the community came out in droves to look for Mustian during the many months she was missing. They tried ground searches, ponds, woods and anywhere else they could think of, Megan said. “We didn’t realize how loved and how many people knew her.”
The Youngsville Rescue Dive Team conducted the most recent search for Mustian in late January 2025. They were finally successful. “We would like to thank Sheriff Curtis Brame and the Vance County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance,” the sheriff’s office said. While the retrieval of Mustian’s body has provided some answers, authorities will continue searching for more.
“Her disappearance and death is continuing to be investigated,” a statement from police reads.
