Eagle-eyed Duggar fans and non-fans alike are aware that the family’s eldest daughter isn’t in Arkansas.
Jana Duggar has been in Nebraska as her disgusting brother Josh’s latest scandal continues.
Fans have observed Jana was visiting with the Wissman family — including rumored boyfriend Stephen Wissmann.
But curiously, it looks like everyone involved is trying to keep that a secret. What’s going on?
Fans have been assembling enough clues that most are thoroughly convinced of Jana Duggar’s whereabouts.
Whether she’s really courting Stephen or not, there seemed to be some sort of social visit to the Wissmann’s.
But if she is on the Nebraskan excursion as she appears to be … well, see for yourself:
On Monday — Memorial Day — the Wissmann family’s official Instagram account shared a massive family photo.
"The whole family came into town for Memorial Weekend," the caption reads.
"And," the caption continues, "we are enjoying every second of it!!"
And yet no part of that photo shows Jana.
Now, maybe she was in other photos, and they only chose to show the family picture.
But while different variants of group photos are common, most would consider it polite to give a visiting friend a shout-out.
Why would the Wissman’s avoid Jana’s name.
The simplest explanation would be that all of the clues that Jana might be in Nebraska are a series of improbably coincidences.
The sighting of her outline, hearing her name called, her conspicuous absence from Jill’s belated birthday lunch … could it be?
There are other explanations, however.
The first is simply that Jana may have asked, for whatever reason, to not be included in the shoutout.
The second is that the family, for their own reasons, opted to exclude any official public record of her involvement.
One reason that either party might have sought to keep Jana out of the frame is for appearance’s sake.
Jana may be a 31-year-old woman, but she is unmarried — almost anathema in the fundamentalist world.
She might be trusted to travel among other fundamentalists in ways that seem "unfair" to much younger unmarried fundies.
But it seems much more likely that the primary reason for Jana’s visual exclusion, if that is what happened, is her brother.
The Duggar brand and the entire family have been, are now, and will forever be inextricably linked to Josh Duggar.
That means being linked to his crimes, his arrests, his scandals, and into the cover-up.
It has only been a little more than a month since Josh Duggar was arrested.
He is facing charges of possessing photos and video depicting the horrific sexual abuse of very young girls.
While he has vowed to fight the charges and is out on bond, the charges sound … consistent with his past crimes.
When Josh was a teenager, he molested five young girls — that we know of.
Four of them were his own sisters.
His parents conspired to hide his crimes from law enforcement, who only learned of it years later when they were tipped off.
There is a particular reason that these extreme families living on society’s fringes might be afraid of visual associations with the Duggars right now.
Josh’s criminal history and recent arrest have shone a spotlight onto many things.
Namely, upon the ways that fundamentalist fertility cults protect and even encourage abuse.
When the lights turn on, the cockroaches scatter.
That may be what is happening here.
Large, insular families that eschew mainstream society in order to control their children rarely want to be placed under a microscope.
Jana has been seen as something of a Cinderella figure for years.
Part of the reason is because she of course labors and provides free childcare for children who are not hers — her siblings.
The main reason, however, is because she remains unmarried, which to the Duggars is all but unthinkable.
Jana has been linked with Stephen Wissmann, a 27-year-old pilot.
The two apparently spent time together at Christmas and also traveled together to Texas.
Obviously, they would not be permitted to actually date, but fans wonder if they might be courting.
That has not been confirmed, however.
Stephen had the opportunity to deny the courtship rumors, but chose not to.
Instead, he simply claimed to be busy with work.