Rebecca Paulk left her parents home on September 7, 2015, around 5:00 p.m. saying she was going out and would be back later. The following day, Rebecca's tan Honda Civic was located in a ditch on a rural road of Whynot, a small, unincorporated community located on the Alabama/Mississippi border and about an hour away from her home in Linden. Her purse, laptop and iPad were still inside. A few days after her disappearance, Rebecca's cellphone was found about a mile away from her car. On September 8, 2015, surveillance footage from two businesses in Meridian, Mississippi, showed a woman resembling Rebecca Paulk with 57 year old John Bentley Poisso Jr. On September 26, 2015, authorities executed a search warrant on his property off Old Wire Road in Meridian, Mississippi, but found no evidence linking him to her disappearance.

John Bentley Poisso Jr. has not been charged in Rebecca’s disappearance, and was not officially designated as a suspect.