Search continues for Brandi White, last seen near Mount Olive, Mississippi

Brandi Lauren White’s aunt describes her niece as resilient. “She’s been through hell and back through her whole life,” Angela Cordell told Dateline.

At around 20 years old, Brandi was beaten and raped, and spent three months in a coma, according to her aunt. “She came out of that, you know, and had to learn how to walk again and talk again and everything,” Angela said. “But she survived it.”

Angela told Dateline that Brandi was able to find joy again after that experience. She said you could always hear Brandi’s laughter over anyone else’s in a room. Brandi eventually became a mother. She has a teen son and a young daughter. “She loved her babies,” Angela said. “She was a people person,” Angela said. But Angela said her trusting nature could also be her downfall. “‘Cause she trusted the wrong people, you know?”

Angela says her niece struggled with drug addiction and cycled in and out of rehab. In the summer of 2025, it seemed like something had shifted. Brandi had completed another stay in treatment and was determined to rebuild. “When she first got out of rehab, you know, she was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna try to make it,’” Angela recalled. Brandi went back to her old job at a gas station, and she seemed to be on a better path until she began spending time with people from her past, according to Angela.

And then, she vanished. More than a year later, Brandi’s family is still waiting for answers.

Chief Deputy Ricky Lott of the Covington County Sheriff’s Department told Dateline Brandi was last seen around 3 a.m. on August 20, 2025, near Highway 532 and William Warren Road in the Mount Olive, Mississippi, area. Lott says it is a wooded area that had been cleared and was being used as a dump site. The site was a former gravel pit where people had long hauled away dirt, then filled the holes in with trash. “As the trash piles up, they, you know, they bury it,” he said.

According to Lott, 37-year-old Brandi had been staying with a family friend for about 10 days and was with that person when she was last seen.

Angela, who is acting as the family spokesperson, says the friend told Brandi’s father that he and Brandi ran off in different directions, after apparently getting spooked by something. “I don’t know if they thought it was the police or whatever.” But when the family friend came back, Brandi was gone. “He ran back to his car and was hollering for Brandi.” But the family friend could not find her.

The Covington County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene, where a group was already looking for Brandi. During the search, investigators recovered a shoe, which is being held as evidence. “Nobody was able to confirm that it was her shoe,” Lott said. The dump site has since closed.

Before her disappearance, Lott said, the longest Brandi had ever gone without contacting her family was a couple of weeks. That lengthy silence has prompted investigators to consider the unimaginable. “What we do here would be to look for a body,” he said. “Or look for, you know, if she was, you know, killed and disposed of someplace.”

Investigators have also considered the possibility that drug use played a role. “There’s a possibility she could have overdosed and whoever she was with may have panicked and didn’t know what to do,” he said. However, he emphasized that these theories remain speculative.

Lott says investigators have conducted numerous interviews but found no evidence of foul play. And the family friend “still remains a suspect at this time,” he said. “We haven’t been able to clear him completely.” Dateline reached out to the family friend but has not yet heard back.

The Covington County Sheriff’s Department continues to look into the tips being submitted, “but it is just pure speculation,” Lott said. What they need is someone who knows what happened to come forward and “help us out,” he stressed.

“We want to get closure for the family. We want to solve this case, and -- and if it was an accident, then we’ll investigate it that way,” Lott said. “If it was something intentional, then we need to investigate it that way also.”

More than a year later, Brandi’s family just wants her to come home. “Brandi is loved by everybody in her family. Everybody loves her,” her aunt Angela said.

Brandi’s son is living with her father. Her daughter is living with her birth father. They miss their mother. “She would do anything to make sure they had what they needed,” Angela said. Before she disappeared, Brandi taught her son how to drive. “He loves her, and he’s hoping for her to come home.”

Brandi is 5’3’’, 130 lbs. She has brown and blonde hair and blue eyes. She would be 38 years old today.

If you have any information about Brandi’s disappearance, please contact the Covington County Sheriff’s Department at 601-765-8281.

If you have a story to share with Dateline, please submit it here.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct where Brandi’s children are currently living.