ANISSA
Partner: Anissa
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Missing Partner: Nasheema
Disappeared: June 2026
Relationship Length: They met in 2020 and started dating in 2022
How They Met
Nasheema's mother and Anissa's aunt are friends, so the two kept running into one another at family functions.
For years the bond stayed platonic, built on easy conversation at family gatherings and a shared New York circle.
How the Relationship Evolved
In 2021/2022, Anissa's boyfriend ended their relationship and the breakup sent her into a depression.
Nasheema showed up and refused to let her stay low. She said all the right things, made Anissa feel special, and paid close attention to her emotions in a way no one else had.
That attention turned friendship into love. They began dating from there. Anissa had always identified as a straight woman so this was the first same-sex relationship for her.
She was raised in a home centered on church, where same-sex relationships were treated as something to shun. Acting on her feelings meant risking the approval of her family, her friends, and the faith community that raised her. They had to hide their relationship from everyone.
To this day, Anissa has not come out to her family or her friends. She has kept her relationship with Nasheema a secret.
A New Life in Arizona
Both women were living in New York City, where spending their lives together openly as a couple was impossible and privacy was out of reach.
They decided to move away together to Tucson, Arizona, so that they could live as a couple without facing the judgment of their friends and family.
They moved in 2024, and the change was immediate. For the first time, they could live together without hiding, and Anissa felt freer and more confident than she ever had.
Both of them found jobs, built a home, and talked about the future, and Anissa felt they were almost married. They started building the dream life that they had hoped for.
Anissa told her family that she had taken a big job opportunity in Arizona, not that she had moved with Nasheema.
No one in her family knew that she was crossing the country to live with her girlfriend.
Nasheema's mother has never accepted her daughter's sexuality: Nasheema once told Anissa that her mother took her to church to be baptized in an attempt to pray the gay away, and the experience left her traumatized.
Her mother disapproved of Anissa from the start, and she watched the two women with suspicion whenever Anissa visited her home in New York.
Building a Family
Nasheema was the one who first approached Anissa with the idea of having a child together. She wanted to expand their family and have a baby together.
Anissa suggested adoption someday, but Nasheema insisted they could have a baby of their own, naturally. And quickly.
The couple had a mutual friend, a bisexual man named Anthony (AKA Antonio), who would be willing to be the sperm donor for the couple.
Nasheema had already spoken to Antonio about it without Anissa’s knowledge.
Nasheema sweetened the request with promises: there was no money for an engagement ring yet, but once the baby arrived, they would plan a proper wedding and shop for wedding dresses together.
Anissa has always dreamed of walking down the aisle, and she believed her partner meant every word. After a couple of weeks of Nasheema's persistence, Anissa gave in.
There were no formal or legal agreements among Anissa, Nasheema, and Antonio beyond the decision to have a child. It was a casual agreement among friends.
The plan was that Anissa and Antonio would have sex, and Anissa and Nasheema would raise the child together. Antonio would be only the sperm donor and biological father, with no part in raising the child.
Anissa set firm conditions for her own protection: she and Antonio would both get tested for sexually transmitted diseases first, and she would try only once. If they didn’t get pregnant, they wouldn’t try again.
They decided to try for a baby, the traditional way, sexual intercourse at Nasheema and Anissa’s apartment.
It was far from easy, because she felt no connection or attraction to Antonio and needed to drink to get through it. She describes it as an awkward and uncomfortable encounter, but she did it anyway for her family and for her relationship.
Three weeks later, Anissa learned she was pregnant, after Nasheema kept buying tests and urging her to take them.
Nasheema was thrilled and called Antonio right away to share the news.
Antonio has not told his partner about the arrangement, because his partner would not have allowed it. He’s been keeping it a secret.
The Disappearance
After the positive test, Nasheema became even more attentive, buying Anissa flowers, making sure she had eaten, and going with her to her first prenatal appointments.
She also grew closer to Antonio, meeting him at bars after work, while Anissa stayed home. Nothing in Nasheema's behavior suggested that she was planning to leave.
On a late June evening in 2026, Nasheema finished work and told Anissa she was heading over to Antonio's. She asked if Anissa wanted anything, and Anissa asked for cookies and cream ice cream.
Anissa asked how her day was, said goodnight, and fell asleep waiting for her to come home.
She woke up several hours later and there was no Nasheema, no message, and her call went straight to voicemail. Anissa was not alarmed, because she assumed Nasheema was out having fun and would be home late. She went back to bed.
By the next morning there was still no word, so Anissa called Antonio, who told her that Nasheema had never come over and that they had not been together.
Anissa called their mutual friends in Tucson, and none of them had seen Nasheema.
Anissa called, texted, and emailed Nasheema repeatedly and received no response.
She called the hospitals to find out whether Nasheema had been hurt or admitted.
She called the police station and the jails to see whether Nasheema had been arrested, and she was not there.
She then discovered that Nasheema had blocked her on Snapchat and that her Instagram account no longer appeared.
Nasheema had also taken her birth certificate and Social Security card from the folder where Anissa kept their documents.
She left most of her clothes and belongings behind, which Anissa believes was designed to keep her from becoming suspicious.
She tried calling from a private number, hoping Nasheema would answer without knowing who it was.
She asked Antonio to place a three-way call, and that did not work either.
As a last resort, she called Nasheema's mother and said she was calling on behalf of a friend. Her mother was curt on the phone and denied knowing where Nasheema was.
Anissa cannot afford a private investigator, and has exhausted every option she has.
The Aftermath
Anissa is six months pregnant with a baby boy and is preparing to raise him as a single mother.
She has not told her family about the pregnancy, because telling them would mean explaining the whole story: who the father is, how the baby was conceived, and that she loved a woman and not a man.
As a result, she is going through the pregnancy in secret, isolated and alone, without the care, partnership, and support that she was promised.
Anissa was left with the shared apartment, including the lease, the rent, and the renter's insurance, and the financial strain is serious.
She works in childcare, and she is now solely responsible for supporting a child that she and Nasheema planned to raise together.
She does not plan to seek child support from Antonio, because he only agreed to help.
Unanswered Questions & Finding Nasheema
Anissa wants the truth about why a woman who begged for a child walked away from that child's mother.
Anissa still plans to raise the child on her own, but would appreciate any type of support she’s able to get, but more importantly, she wants accountability and answers.
Anissa wants to know how much of the relationship was real, and was any of it.
She wants to know: Who is Nasheema, really? Anissa knows only fragments of her past.
Does Nasheema have other lovers she has done this to before?
Does Nasheema have a child that she never disclosed.
Did Nasheema's mother get involved in the relationship?
The baby is due in a matter of months, and Anissa wants answers before her son is born.