#unsolved kidnapping

[fletchermarple]

Anthonette Cayedito was only 9 years old when she vanished in the middle of the night on April 6, 1986. According to her younger sister, at around 3 am there was a knock on the door in their Gallup, New Mexico home. Anthonette went to open it, and was taken away by a man. Her mother Penny was fast asleep and only realized Anthonette was missing the next day.

The sister would later say that the man at the door was “Uncle Joe”, a man who was married to Penny’s sister at the time. However, his alibi checked out and he never became a serious suspect. But this made police convinced that Anthonette had opened the door for someone she knew.

About a year after her abduction, the Gallup police received a frantic call from a girl claiming to be Anthonette. She stated she was calling from Albuquerque before a man could be heard in the background saying “who said you could use the phone?”, followed by a struggle and a scream.  The line disconnected before the call could be traced, but after listening to the recording, Penny was certain the girl was her daughter.

Years later, a waitress in Nevada reported seeing a girl in her early teens that resembled Anthonette in the company of an older couple, described as “unkept.” According to the waitress, the girl kept trying to get her attention and after they left she found a note under her plate that said “Help me! Call the police.” It’s never been confirmed who the girl in the restaurant was and Anthonette remains missing.

[fletchermarple]

A Tragic Summer

In 1974, Jacksonville, Florida, was shaken by the disappearance of five girls in a period of three months. Police considered the cases weren’t related because the abductions happened in different parts of the city, but they all have in common that they remain unsolved.

The first victim was Jean Marie Schoen (first picture, held by her mother). She was only 9 years old when she went missing on July 21, after she left her house to head to a food store two blocks away.

Then came the Anderson sisters, Lillian Annette (11) and Mylette (6). On August 1, their mother had to leave them alone at the house to go take care of a sick relative. She left around 6 pm and called an hour later to check on the girls, and they were home safely at the time. But when their father arrived, 20 minutes later, they were nowhere to be found.

On September 27, 12 year old Virginia Helm (second picture) vanished after going to a convenience store a block away from her home. Her body was found a month later, buried in a shallow grave. She had been shot in the head, and reports at the time say that an initial examination didn’t show signs of sexual assault, although I’m uncertain if that changed after the proper autopsy. As a side trivia, the detective that investigated this case was Lester Permenter, whose daughter almost became a victim of Ted Bundy. The serial killer tried to pick her up, but she was saved by her brother, who found the man odd and wrote down his license plate. A day after, Bundy murdered Kimberly Leach, his last victim.

The last missing girl was Rebecca Ann Greene (12, third picture), who disappeared the morning of October 12, after going to a store. Her remains were found three years later, and by that time it was impossible to determine how she died.

Of all these cases, only the Anderson sister’s has a known suspect. Authorities think it’s likely they were taken by serial killer Paul John Knowles, who had escaped from jail 6 days before the girls went missing. After Knowles was killed while trying to escape authorities in Georgia, on December 1974, police found some tape recordings in which he confessed to the murder of two girls that matched Lillian and Mylette’s descriptions. Although in them he gave a location where he’d left their bodies, a search of that area turned up nothing. And because there were no bodies and Knowles was dead, there will always be some uncertainty about the resolution of this story.

[fletchermarple]

The kidnapping of Michaela Garecht

When I was a kid, in the early 90s, I loved watching Unsolved Mysteries. Never missed an episode, even though it terrified me and gave me nightmares more often than not.

One case I remember vividly is the kidnapping of Michaela Garecht. She was only 9 years old in November 19, 1988, when she and her friend Katrina Hogue left Michaela’s house in South Hayward, California, and rode their scooters to the Rainbow Market, a store only a couple of blocks away to buy some treats. When they finished and went to fetch their scooters, Michaela’s wasn’t where she initially left it. Instead, they spotted it next to a car in the parking lot. When she went to get it, a man jumped out of a parked car, grabbed Michaela and drove away with her. It was barely after 10 am.

Katrina, who was only a child herself and the only witness to the crime, went inside the store to ask for help. A store clerk called the police to report the kidnapping, but unfortunately she gave them the wrong description of the perpetrator, because she thought it was a man she had seen earlier. For the first 48 hours of the investigation, a time we know it’s crucial in any abduction, police and the public were looking for a man in his 30s, with a mustache and driving a burgundy car, when in reality the suspect looked very different.

Once they realized their mistake and talked to Katrina, they corrected the description. The man who took Michaela, the girl said, was in his 20s with shoulder length dirty blonde hair and bad complexion, possibly pockmarked or with acne. His car was an old beat up model, tan or gold. Here’s the sketch that was released to the public:

The case attracted a lot of interest and was extensively covered by media, including segments in America’s Most Wanted and the aforementioned Unsolved Mysteries. Police claim that they received and followed over 15,000 leads, with no positive results: Michaela has never been seen again, and to this day, the man responsible for her disappearance hasn’t been identified. The case is still open and every once in a while a new plea for information will come up.

At one point, a man called Timothy Bindner was considered a person of interest in this and other disappearances of little girls. He had some questionable habits, such as sending letters and money to several little girls and according to Michaela’s mom, he would interfere with the investigation and taunt them with the pretense of wanting to help. However, he was never arrested or charged with anything.

Another person who was looked at was James Daveggio, who is currently on death row for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 22 year old Vanessa Lei Samson in 1997, a crime he committed with his then lover Michelle Michaud.

In 2012, Wesley Shermantine, one half of the serial killer duo dubbed as the Speed Freak Killers, suggested that his partner in crime, Loren Herzog, could be the culprit because of his resemblance to the police sketch. Unfortunately, Herzog had just committed suicide so it was pretty much a dead end for the police.

Michaela’s mother, Sharon Murch, keeps the hope that she will find out what happened to her daughter. She posts often in this Facebook page and her blog. She has said she believes she could have been a victim of human trafficking and was taken out of the country.

If you have any useful information about the case, please call 1-800-222-3999 or email [email protected]