Culwell and her mother, Kimberly Whitton, were last seen on June 21, 2007. They resided in a log cabin on a forty-acre property. The driveway leading up to the residence has two locked gates and as a result, the cabin can only be reached on foot. The day she went missing, Kimberly went to her job at Cloverdale Manor Nursing Home in Scottsboro, Alabama to pick up some papers. She called a friend on the way back home to Section, Alabama, but they were unable to talk because the connection was bad. Kimberly promised to call her friend back in five minutes. She never did.

Kimberly's coworkers reported her disappearance on June 28, a week after her disappearance. Authorities interviewed her husband, Barry Whitton, who is Culwell's stepfather. Barry stated Kimberly and Culwell had left their residence shortly after Kimberly arrived home from work. He said he gave his wife $20,000 in cash at time, and he never saw them after that. They have never been heard from again.

In September 2007, Barry pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms. In July 2008, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. The typical sentence given for those charges is between 12 and 18 months, but the judge elected to sentence Barry to the maximum term due to the danger she believes he poses to the community; she described him as the most dangerous defendant she had seen in her judicial career. The judge heard testimony that Barry bragged about having murdered three people, discussed body disposal and removing trace evidence, and threatened to kill other individuals, including his mother-in-law and the judge who placed his son in foster care.

Barry is considered a suspect in Kimberly and Culwell's disappearances, although he has not confessed to harming them. Authorities stated they found blood in one of his pickup trucks and on a hatchet handle, but the source of the blood has not been revealed. Curiously, Barry's first wife, Michelle Townsend Whitton, was also reported missing by him in 1997. At the time he said she, like Whitton and Culwell, had left him voluntarily. Michelle was found stabbed to death and buried in a shallow grave in DeKalb County, Alabama six weeks later. Her murder remains unsolved. Barry had told Kimberly's family Michelle had died of a drug overdose. While in jail for being a felon in possession of firearms, he allegedly told a cellmate he did not kill Michelle, but he knew who did and he had killed that person.

It is uncharacteristic of Kimberly and Culwell to leave for an extended period without telling anyone. Kimberly had worked at the nursing home for seven years prior to her disappearance, and the only time she missed work was to take Culwell on a school trip. Kimberly and Barry were not having any known problems in their marriage in 2007, and Kimberly had not said her husband was mistreating her. Barry has not faced any charges relating to their disappearances.

Kimberly and her daughter may have traveled to Montana after they went missing, but investigators suspect foul play was involved in their cases. Culwell was a fifth-grade student at Macedonia School at the time she went missing. Her disappearance and her mother's remain unsolved.

Above: Barry Whitton