Post by Joanna on Aug 25, 2016 3:14:52 GMT -5
The 1996 Disappearance of Trudy Appleby
Trudy Appleby is still 11-years-old to those who knew her, even though she would now be in her 30s. This is because on Wednesday, August 21, 1996, she vanished without a trace. “There isn’t really a day she isn’t thought of in our minds,” Amber Holderfield, a close childhood friend of Trudy’s, said. “She’d be in her 30s now. There is so much she didn’t get to do.” What happened to the child continues to tear at the hearts of Amber and her mother Kelly Carlson. And they’ve made a vow to never give up searching for answers, despite the lack of clues.
An ordinary summer day. August of 1996 was hot in Moline, Illinois, and Trudy was just two weeks shy of her 12th birthday. The spirited, quick-witted brunette was in a good mood the afternoon of August 20 because she was free after being grounded for a few weeks. Just about every summer afternoon – before she was grounded – Trudy could be found at the Carlson house. “She was a staple in this house. She called me her mom number 2,” Kelly recalled. The Carlson house was roughly a block from the Appleby home, where the young girl lived with her father and an older half-brother. Her mother also lived nearby, but her parents were separated.
It was a safe, quiet area. Trudy, Amber and other kids roamed the neighborhood because bad things seldom happened in Moline. On that particular Tuesday afternoon, they were rollerblading in front of the Carlson home, then ate hotdogs and mac-and-cheese. It was around 8 p.m. when Amber, 13 at the time, walked Trudy to her driveway. It was almost impossible to see Trudy’s house from the road because the driveway wound between two other houses and crossed a small ravine. “We made plans to hang out again the next day and that was it. Nothing unusual or strange,” Amber remembered. “It was summer vacation and I slept through my alarm the next day. When I finally got up, I rang and rang over to her house. But no one answered.”
It was routine for Trudy’s father to have lunch at home and when he arrived that day, Trudy was nowhere to be found. This wasn’t particularly alarming because the girl spent the majority of her time out and about with friends. It was before the age of cell phones. But when she still wasn’t there when he got home that evening, he began to worry. “He called over here and asked if Trudy was here or had been here,” Kelly said. “I told him no, that we hadn’t seen her.”
Amber recalled that immediately after her mother hung up the phone with Trudy’s father, she knew something was very wrong. “I was like, ‘Someone took her,’” Amber said.
The police were called, but the authorities weren’t certain anything sinister had happened. Perhaps Trudy was off with a different friend or simply ran away. An officer told Kelly that Trudy would be back soon. “It was frustrating that it took a few days for them to get it. We don’t know what would have happened if they had jumped on it right then,” Kelly continued.
Shortly after Trudy vanished, Amber told detectives her friend had recently been saying she was talking to an older boy. At the time, she thought her friend was making up the story to make a neighborhood boy who had a crush on her jealous. “I wish I would have asked more questions about it when she said it,” she laments. “That still affects me greatly to this day.”
A neighbor told police she believed she saw Trudy getting into a boxy, grey vehicle the morning she disappeared with a man who appeared to be in his early 20s with brown, curly hair. Authorities believe this was the last time anyone in the neighborhood saw the girl.
On-going investigation. Trudy’s case fills almost six file cabinets at the Moline Police Department. Interviews, witness statements and detective’s notes, organized in various orders have been gone through multiple times, but no one has been able to put the puzzle together. “It’s probably one of the biggest well-known cases in the Quad Cities, especially in cold cases,” Detective Michael Griffin, of the Moline Police Department, said. “We get tips weekly about Trudy. Some of them are far-fetched, of course, but they come in.” Griffin has been the lead investigator on Trudy’s case since March of 2015. He was handed the files after receiving training in cold cases – specifically missing person cold cases. Those are the kinds of cases that are hard to shake when off duty, he explained. “You feel as year by year passes, hope dims a little. We’ve never found her, so technically, it’s still a missing person’s case,” he continued. “You feel for her family because having kids of my own, I know the panic when you lose track of them in the grocery store. Imagine how much that panic compounds over 20 years.”
There are a number of primary suspects, but none has cooperated with authorities. Several people have been questioned over the years, but it’s unclear what physical evidence, if any, has been recovered.
Never-ending promise. When Trudy first vanished, neighbor Kelly Carlson made Trudy’s mother a promise. It’s one she intends to keep as long as she lives. “She was worried people would forget about Trudy,” Kelly said. “But we won’t let that happen. Never. I keep my promises.” Tragically, Trudy’s mother was hit and killed by a drunk driver in 2014. She died without knowing the fate of her only child. Trudy’s grandmother also passed away that year. “I believe they got their answers as soon as they passed over, and that they are with Trudy now,” she added. “That’s a small comfort.”
On September 4, 2016, Trudy would turn 32. Kelly and Amber believe she would have become a teacher, nurse, or possibly a veterinarian because she loved animals.
As Amber grew up, she would stop by the mailbox at the beginning of Trudy’s driveway before school, in the hope that Trudy would somehow be there waiting to go to school. Of course, she never was. Trudy’s father still lives in the house. Amber now has children of her own and they all know about Trudy. “I have one of the original fliers laminated and hanging in my house,” she admitted. “My kids know why I’m so strict with them.” Amber has also taken a course to become certified to help with official searches for the missing. It’s all because of Trudy. “Someone out there knows exactly what happened. Get off your high horse and give Trudy’s family closure. Little girls just don’t go ‘poof,’” she added.
If you have any information about Trudy Appleby’s case, you are urged to contact the Moline Police Department at (309) 524-2147.
Source: Rachael Trost, NBC News, August 21, 2016.