143: San Diego’s Lost Women, Episode 1: Cynthia Maine

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In the 1980s, dozens of women disappeared from San Diego, California. One of them was 26-year-old Cynthia Maine. Cynthia was a daughter, sister, mother, and woman trying to survive addiction while working along El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego’s notorious red light district. By 1986, she was rebuilding her life. She had found work as a waitress, but she was also serving as a police informant. Just months before she vanished, she had allegedly begun an affair with one of her police contacts. Late in February, she told her family she was going to watch a movie. She never came home. As investigators searched for Cynthia, few realized they were witnessing the beginning of one of the largest…