Popular Reviews of Up and Vanished

The podcast started strong with a compelling story, but I couldn't personally finish because of the tone it took halfway through. The ads placement is really annoying in the middle of episode without any warning. The host like to talk about himself a lot (or have other people do it for him). But any of that would have been fine. the real problem for me is the content itself. The host isn't a journalist and I guess you don't realize how much journalistic integrity matters until it is lacking. Names of real people were mentioned as potential suspects without any regard for the effect it would have on their lives. At some point, the host decided he was a crusader with a mission to make the people responsible "pay" (those were his words). One interview with a person involved (Brooke) was particularly jarring because he was berating her about her conflicting feelings and telling her what she should do instead of trying to understand where she was coming from. In my opinion, the point should be to get the truth and understand how people came to do something absolutely terrible. You can't be judgemental, have a preconceived notion of what happened and you can't rely on hearsay/gossip to build your narrative. It seems the host just wanted to ride the true crime wave without an idea of what that entails (e.g. it doesn't entail putting your grandmother on the air to sing your praises).

I liked the beginning, but the narrator becomes really unreliable in the second half and isn't able to report in a disinterested manner anymore. I understand that this podcast helped to reopen a cold case which is great, but there's no need to brag about it constantly.

Terrible podcast. The host has inserted himself right into the narritive. His boasting and self congratulating attitude is unbearable. Later episodes stretch on with no actual content. lucky to get 1 star

I feel like I'm the only person that hates this podcast. It's hailed as solving the case and I don't doubt that the exposure helped technically solve the case but I feel it also helped frame the wrong guy for the murder. The private investigator who worked Tara's case since the beginning really did all the work and not Payne. Plus Payne seems to have forgotten all about the podcast now as it's not had a new case for a few years now.

Starts out ok but gets exploitative and into rather unethical territory after a few episodes.

Make the dramatic voice stop!

Wonderful but just too darn long.

The definition of modern podcast journalism. Great technique and high production value. Best male voice in true crime podcasting. Latest series is raw but a refreshingly honest (wee) shift from previous reporting. A great and true arch of series.

I lost interest after the first season, but that doesn't mean it wasn't great. There's some definite growing pains in terms of Payne learning some of the ethics of reporting in the first few episodes, but nothing deliberate and he definitely improves as it goes on. One of my favorites. Really similar to Your Own Back Yard IMO, so if you like this, listen to that, and if you liked that one, listen to this 100%. The online forums for this podcast is also super sick.

Season 1 is fantastic. The others can be a little hard to get into.

Riveting,scratching myself like a junkie needing their next fix...( While I look to see how many more episodes I can listen to ,of this podcast before I break out into a cold sweat ,the reality of having to wait for the next episode to air,washes over me.

Payne seems to be milking this latest season for all he can get out of it. He put out an episode talking about meeting with a suspect. Then he put out an episode with him talking to the suspect, now he's put out an episode talking about when he talked to the suspect. All three of those could have been one episode. Making us wait 3 to 4 weeks for more information on the case. The other annoying thing about this podcast, is the random 5 second bouts of silence that occur. There will be 5 seconds of silence before leading into ads, or coming out of ads, or just when he is going from one subject to another. I've actually pulled my phone out of my pocket before, because I thought that Spotify had died or something. He's really milking this podcast at this point.

S1: Started off great until the host Payne Lindsey started stroking his own ego and made it sound as if he solved the murder. It was so off putting that I couldn't bring myself to listen to the latest seasons

This is the first true crime podcast I ever listened to. I was really thoroughly invested in the podcast, but about 3/4 of the way through the first season I did a complete 180. As others have mentioned there are mentioning of real names and such, and the ad placement is absolutely terrible. I understand sponsors want the ads sprinkled throughout but you could do better. All of that is tolerable to a certain extent but murder victim trivia? Really? I've never seen such tasteless content before or since, turning a woman's tragic murder into some game show for drunken entertainment.

Very good true crime podcast.

TERRIBLE. Payne, Stop wasting our time. This should now be 3 episodes. Stop wasting 40 hours of time amd slandering innocent people. You can edit the hours of wrong investigating. Get over yourself and spare is the stupidity. I'll never get those hours back. And omg, please stop the terrible "descriptions" you let your friend read in the first few episodes. He's terrible

One of Upper Balcony's favorite podcasts! It started our love for listening to true crime. We didn't rate and review this one on our podcast but it was the catalyst for our own creation!!

This is my absolute favorite podcast to listen to. So easy to follow and listen while you have your hands full. Season one was the best yet.

This podcast was so great! I can't wait for Payne to get involved on another investigative cold case.

I should have bailed when Nancy Grace guest starred, but foolishly I didn't. The "reporting" is unethical and the host's opinions are presented as facts, no matter what harm it causes.