Jana Manasco: More Than Three Years After Her Disappearance, Questions Remain in Union County

Jana Manasco: More Than Three Years After Her Disappearance, Questions Remain in Union County

By James Seidel | CC News Network | Crime and Cask

UNION COUNTY, S.C. — More than three years after Jana Manasco disappeared from the Monarch community of Union County, her family is still searching for the one thing they have never received: an answer.

What happened to Jana?

Manasco disappeared on August 19, 2023, only days after being released from the Union County Detention Center. Since then, her family, friends, volunteers and independent searchers have followed leads, walked through woods, searched remote properties and continued putting pressure on anyone who might know what happened.

But Jana has never been found.

There have been no publicly announced arrests in connection with her disappearance, and despite years of tips, rumors and theories, her family remains without closure.

Her father, Jimmy Stines, has made it clear that he isn’t giving up.

At one point, Stines publicly offered a $50,000 cash reward for information leading him to his daughter.

“50K cash money in hand … Just me and whoever is bad enough to man up to what you’ve done and the location of my daughter, Jana. Don’t fear me. I’m just a dad looking for his lil girl.”

His frustration has increasingly been directed toward the investigation itself.

“Too many leads and too much information,” Stines said. “If you’re any good at your job, you’d be able to figure it out. Do your job or stop lying about what you’re doing.”

Then he asked the question that has driven his search from the beginning:

“If this was your kid, what would you do?”

Who Was Jana Manasco?

Before addiction and legal troubles became part of her life, Jana was remembered by those who knew her as a talented athlete and a young woman with a family who loved her.

Family friend Neil McGowen described her simply:

“She’s somebody’s daughter. She was a great athlete, and a real pretty girl. It’s a shame it has come to this.”

According to family accounts, Manasco struggled with addiction following a sports injury.

The months preceding her disappearance were difficult.

Her husband filed for divorce on February 23, 2023.

On March 8, she pleaded guilty to possession of prescription drugs and was sentenced to time served.

Her divorce was finalized June 2.

On July 12, she was found guilty of larceny and sentenced to a fine or 30 days.

Then, on August 1, she was arrested on a charge involving possession of cocaine base or methamphetamine. After spending 17 days in jail, she received probation.

On August 19, 2023, Jana disappeared.

She was last known to be in the Monarch area.

The Search Moves Into the Woods of Monarch

As months turned into years without an answer, the search expanded beyond traditional law-enforcement efforts.

In October 2025, a search team of approximately 20 people — including this reporter — returned to the Monarch area with three trained human-remains-detection dogs.

The team focused on remote property near the old bridge off the Highway 215 loop, an area thick with brush, abandoned paths and difficult terrain.

Then one of the dogs alerted.

A second dog was brought into the area and also alerted at the location.

Searchers began digging.

The team later moved to additional locations, where the dogs gave further alerts. Despite those indications, no human remains were recovered during the search.

That distinction is critical.

Cadaver dogs, more formally known as human-remains-detection dogs, are trained to detect chemical compounds associated with human decomposition. An alert can give searchers and investigators a reason to examine an area more closely, but an alert by itself does not establish whose remains produced the odor — or even prove that recoverable human remains are currently present.

Still, repeated alerts by trained dogs were enough to convince volunteers that the areas deserved further examination.

The dogs used in the search were trained in the Spartanburg area and had reportedly participated alongside FEMA teams during Hurricane Helene recovery operations.

The lead trainer told Crime and Cask at the time that he had rarely encountered so many separate alerts concentrated in one area.

Law enforcement was not directly involved in that day’s search. The searches were conducted with permission from property owners, and authorities would have been contacted immediately had remains or other significant evidence been discovered.

What Do the Dog Alerts Mean?

They raise questions. They do not answer them.

Human-remains-detection dogs can detect decomposition odor that may remain in soil or other environments even when visible remains are not present.

That means an alert can identify an area worthy of additional investigation, excavation or forensic examination.

It does not, however, mean the dogs found Jana Manasco.

No remains recovered during the October 2025 search have been identified as Jana because no human remains were recovered at all.

That leaves investigators and Jana’s family facing the same central mystery:

Where is Jana?

A Community Filled With Questions

Jana’s case has become part of a larger conversation about missing people and unexplained deaths in and around Union County.

Community advocates, including Voices of the Voiceless, have attempted to keep attention on Manasco’s disappearance and other unresolved cases.

For families, these aren’t simply case numbers.

Every passing birthday, holiday and anniversary means another milestone without knowing whether a loved one is alive or dead.

It also means living with rumors.

In a small community, stories spread quickly. Names are mentioned. Theories develop. People claim to know what happened.

But rumors aren’t evidence.

More than three years after Jana disappeared, what matters is finding evidence capable of answering the question her family has been asking since August 2023.

Somebody Knows Something

Cases like Jana’s rarely exist in a vacuum.

Someone may remember where she went.

Someone may have seen who she was with.

Someone may remember a conversation that seemed insignificant at the time.

Someone may have heard something afterward.

And someone may have information they’ve been afraid to provide.

Three years is a long time to carry a secret.

It’s an even longer time for a father to wonder where his daughter is.

The people searching for Jana aren’t asking the public to solve the case. They’re asking anyone with legitimate information to finally come forward.

As one volunteer said during the 2025 search:

“We’re not stopping. Somebody out here knows where these people are, and until we find them, we’ll keep coming back.”

The Search for Jana Manasco Continues

Jana Manasco is described as approximately 5 feet 4 inches tall, 151 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. She may also have used the last name Stines.

Anyone with information concerning Jana’s disappearance should contact the Union County Sheriff’s Office at 864-429-1611 or Union County Crime Stoppers at 864-427-0800.

Even information that seems insignificant could matter.

For Jana’s family, this isn’t an old story.

It isn’t a cold statistic.

It’s their daughter, their loved one and an empty place in their family that has remained empty since August 19, 2023.

And until Jana is found, one question will continue hanging over Union County:

What happened to Jana Manasco? People Know. 

About the Author

James Seidel

Administrator

About the CC News Network James Seidel: Publisher, Award Winning Journalist, Author. Investigator, Podcaster, Talk Show Host, and Music Producer. The CC News Network is a distinguished media company in the world of South Carolina News, Weather, Sports and True Crime. At the beginning, James Seidel was only known as Crime and Cask and well known for his relentless pursuit of truth and justice in the Alex Murdaugh trial. As a journalist, author, investigator, radio talk show host, and record producer he has made significant contributions to uncovering some of the most complex and high-profile criminal cases of our time.

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