In December of 2000 Daniella Luna Hernandez was 5 years old, the very picture of childhood innocence. Her father and mother loved and doted on her, but it turned out…they weren’t the only ones watching their daughter with a careful eye. In the months leading up to December 21st, 2000, young Daniella began to see and hear strange things. Her parents assumed she was just talking about an imaginary friend…but the threat was more real than they could have possibly imagined! On the morning of December 21st, Daniella’s mother Abby put her in a simple lilac dress and dropped her off at daycare. It was the last time she would see her daughter for much, much longer than anyone could have guessed.

Here is what we know: Daniella was dropped off at her regular daycare and her mother headed to her work at Holy Cross where she was Head of Nursing for the Trauma Center. Her father, Daniel Bennett, had gone in early to consult on a surgery. Between lunch and nap time, the daycare staff had to deal with an inexplicable power outage…and when the lights came back on, little Daniella was nowhere to be found. After an hour of frantic searching, the daycare staff alerted her parents and then the police. The ensuing search made national news and tips poured in, then slowed, then stopped altogether. The police officially ruled Daniella Hernandez “missing, with no leads” in July of 2001. Her case was closed, and her picture was relegated to milk cartons and fliers. Her parents divorced 2 years after her disappearance, citing “irreconcilable differences”, and her father moved to Colorado. He wound up starting a new family, and a new life, while her mother stayed in Taos, and continued pasting fliers around town.

On June 21, 2007, Daniella appeared in her bedroom in the old family home. It had been sold during her parent’s divorce, of course, and the new residents’ young son was living in Daniella’s old room. Mother Candice Tanner, in an interview with the Santa Fe Times, said, “I heard giggling coming from Jason’s room and when I peeked in to check on him, I saw him playing with a little girl. I couldn’t believe my eyes! We knew all about Daniella, of course – her mother sold us the house, poor woman – so I got right on the phone with the police.”

It quickly became apparent – to Daniella’s mother, to the police, and to the secret government agencies that began swarming their hometown of Taos – that the reason Candice had been able to so quickly identify Daniella was that Daniella looked exactly like the “before” picture on milk cartons and fliers. If she was older than 7, doctors and specialists couldn’t prove it.

Daniella and her mother underwent intense scrutiny from the various authorities that descended upon Taos, and it may be because of that, or the media attention, but shortly after the black helicopters cleared Daniella and her mother left Taos for good. What became of her after this is, like her disappearance, a mystery...