BREAKING NEWS: A new surveillance clip shows Kada Scott standing outside her workplace at 9:42 PM, holding a folded envelope. Minutes later, that same envelope was found in her car — but the letter inside was missing

Philadelphia, October 23, 2025 – In a chilling development that has gripped the city and reignited public outrage over the unsolved aspects of Kada Scott’s abduction and murder, newly released surveillance footage has surfaced showing the 23-year-old aspiring beauty queen standing outside her workplace just minutes before her disappearance. The grainy video, timestamped at 9:42 PM on October 4, captures Scott clutching a folded envelope in her right hand, her posture tense and hurried as she paces near the employee entrance of The Terrace at Chestnut Hill, the senior living facility where she had started working only two weeks prior.

Moments later, according to investigators, that same envelope was discovered inside Scott’s abandoned black 2008 Hyundai Accent, parked haphazardly in the facility’s lot. But the letter it once contained was gone – vanished without a trace, much like Scott herself. This enigmatic detail, revealed today by Philadelphia Police during a tense press briefing, has fueled speculation about the final communications that may have lured the young woman into the hands of her accused killer, 21-year-old Keon King. As the city mourns the confirmation of Scott’s death earlier this month, this footage raises haunting questions: What words were scrawled on that missing paper? A plea for help? A threat? Or a fatal invitation?

Kada Scott’s story began as one of promise and perseverance. A Penn State student balancing classes with a grueling overnight shift from 10 PM to 6 AM, Scott had dreamed of becoming Miss Pennsylvania USA. Just months earlier, she had competed in regional pageants, her radiant smile and poised grace earning her accolades and a growing circle of admirers. Friends described her as “the light in any room,” a young woman whose kindness extended to the elderly residents she cared for at The Terrace. But beneath the surface, shadows loomed. In the days leading up to her vanishing, Scott confided in close friends about receiving relentless harassing phone calls – anonymous voices that left her unsettled and fearful. “She was scared,” one sorority sister told reporters last week, her voice cracking. “She said someone was watching her, following her online and off. We told her to go to the police, but she didn’t want to overreact.”

October 4 started like any other Friday for Scott. She clocked in at 9:30 PM, her Hyundai pulling into the lot under the dim glow of parking lot lamps. Coworkers later recalled seeing her briefly inside, exchanging pleasantries before she stepped out for what she called a “quick break.” That’s when the surveillance camera – one of the few operational ones at the facility, positioned awkwardly near a side door – captured the fateful moment. Scott, dressed in her navy scrubs, stands alone, the envelope gripped tightly as if weighing its contents like a ticking bomb. She glances over her shoulder repeatedly, her free hand fidgeting with her phone. At 9:47 PM, she disappears from frame, walking toward the lot where her car sits unlocked, keys in the ignition.

By 10:15 PM, alarms should have blared – Scott’s shift had barely begun, and she hadn’t returned. But it wasn’t until her mother, frantic after unanswered calls, contacted the facility around midnight that the pieces began to unravel. Conflicting reports from managers painted a picture of chaos: Some said Scott had left early due to illness; others claimed she never fully clocked out. Her car remained, engine cold, doors ajar. Inside, amid scattered nursing notes and a half-eaten protein bar, lay the envelope – crisp, unsealed, but conspicuously empty. Philadelphia Police arrived at dawn on October 5, taping off the lot as Kada’s father, Kevin Scott, arrived in tears. “My baby girl wouldn’t just leave like this,” he pleaded to early-morning news crews, his voice hoarse from sleepless nights. “Someone took her. Please, find her.”

The investigation exploded from there, a whirlwind of digital trails, witness pleas, and forensic breakthroughs that exposed a predator hiding in plain sight. Cellphone pings placed Scott’s device – silenced after 9:50 PM – traveling erratically through Northwest Philadelphia, last signaling near the Awbury Arboretum on October 10. Detectives combed hours of footage from nearby businesses, revealing a gold 1999 Toyota Camry with tinted windows and front-end damage lurking in the shadows. By October 14, that vehicle was linked to Keon King, a 21-year-old with a disturbing history of obsession. King, who surrendered to authorities the next day, had been communicating with Scott via text in the hours before she vanished. Prosecutors allege he posed as a concerned acquaintance, his messages escalating from innocuous check-ins to veiled demands for a meeting.

But King’s shadow stretched further back. In January 2025, he had been charged with kidnapping another woman in a eerily similar scenario – stalking her home, abducting her at knifepoint, and holding her captive for hours before release. That case, marred by prosecutorial missteps, was dropped due to “insufficient evidence,” a decision now under fierce scrutiny by the Philadelphia DA’s office. Newly surfaced TikTok videos, investigated as of October 17, show King lurking outside that victim’s residence, his face obscured but gait unmistakable. “This wasn’t a random act,” Assistant DA Ashley Toczylowski declared at a press conference on October 20. “King exhibited a pattern of targeting young women who caught his eye online. He knew Scott from mutual social circles and fixated on her after her pageant appearances.”

The envelope’s role in this nightmare remains a tantalizing loose thread. Forensic teams, including experts from the FBI’s Quantico lab, confirmed the paper’s origin: standard stationery from a Chestnut Hill stationery shop, purchased days earlier. No fingerprints besides Scott’s marred its surface, but trace fibers – synthetic, possibly from a jacket – hinted at handling by another. Was it a suicide note? Unlikely, given Scott’s upbeat texts to friends at 9:20 PM. A love letter from an admirer? Or, more sinisterly, a ransom demand or coerced confession drafted under duress? Investigators believe it was the latter – a message from King, perhaps delivered via a drop-off or slipped under the door, compelling Scott to meet him in the lot.

Tragedy struck its cruelest blow on October 18, when hikers stumbled upon human remains in a shallow grave behind the abandoned Ada Lewis Middle School in East Germantown, mere miles from the arboretum ping. DNA results, expedited through a partnership with the city coroner’s office, confirmed the worst on October 20: It was Kada. The site, overgrown with weeds and shielded by chain-link fences, yielded grim evidence – Scott’s work ID card, shattered phone case, and scraps of her scrubs entangled in roots. A second tip – anonymous, urging searchers to “look again deeper” – had prompted the revisit after an initial sweep yielded nothing.

King, already held on $2.5 million bail for kidnapping, now faces a litany of charges: murder, arson, evidence tampering, and conspiracy. The arson count stems from a black Hyundai Accent – stolen the day before Scott’s disappearance – found torched in a Southwest Philly junkyard on October 15. Surveillance from a nearby rec center captured the Camry towing the Hyundai to the site, its flames leaping high enough to risk adjacent structures. “We believe this was the vehicle used to transport Ms. Scott to her final location,” Toczylowski explained, her tone steely. King’s phone records, subpoenaed swiftly, placed him at every key site: the Terrace lot at 9:45 PM, the arboretum at 11:30 PM, and the school grounds past midnight.

Philadelphia’s response has been a torrent of grief and fury. Vigils lit up Chestnut Hill on October 21, hundreds gathering with candles and posters bearing Scott’s beaming face. Her family, shattered but resolute, launched a GoFundMe that has raised over $150,000 for a reward and memorial fund. Kevin Scott, flanked by his wife and Kada’s 17-year-old sister, addressed the crowd: “Our hearts are broken, but her spirit lives in every act of kindness we do. We say her name today, tomorrow, forever.” Mayor Cherelle Parker echoed the sentiment in a somber statement: “Kada was our daughter, our sister, our future. We failed her once; we won’t again.”

Social media has amplified the outcry. On X (formerly Twitter), hashtags like #JusticeForKada and #FindTheEnvelope trended locally, with users dissecting the footage frame by frame. One viral thread by true crime enthusiast @Artofhunger75 compiled timelines, noting King’s prior protection order – valid until 2026 – that Scott’s friends claim she was unaware of. “This envelope is the key,” the post read, garnering thousands of shares. “What did it say that made her leave everything behind?” Replies poured in: theories of blackmail, coerced meetups, even wilder notions of workplace intrigue. FOX 29 reporter Steve Keeley, who broke early details on the car’s discovery, posted a haunting video of the family plastering flyers at the facility: “How could she just vanish & no one here see anything?” The clip, viewed over 30,000 times, captured the eerie quiet of the lot where it all ended.

Critics, including women’s advocates, have turned their ire on systemic failures. The dropped January kidnapping case against King – withdrawn due to a clerical error in evidence chain-of-custody – has sparked calls for DA Larry Krasner’s resignation. “One mistake cost a life,” fumed activist @PrettyLiesAlibi in a blistering op-ed shared widely. Groups like the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence are pushing for expanded stalking laws, citing Scott’s harassing calls as a textbook red flag ignored. “Harassment isn’t flirtation,” their statement read. “It’s a prelude to violence.”

As King’s arraignment looms next week, the envelope mystery endures. Will its contents – if recovered – seal his fate, or unravel further horrors? Forensic linguists are analyzing King’s known writings for matches to any hypothetical text, while divers scour nearby Wissahickon Creek for discarded evidence. For now, Philadelphia holds its breath, a city scarred but unbowed.

Kada Scott’s light may have been extinguished, but her story burns bright – a clarion call for vigilance, justice, and the protection of dreams cut short. In the words of her mother, etched on vigil banners: “She was more than a victim. She was a queen.” And queens, even in death, demand their due.