Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos

Cayce Lynn McDaniel










Cayce, date, approximate 1996; Age-progression to age 33 (date, approximate 2015); Sketch of possible suspect; Finis "Pete" Hill
Date Missing 08/16/1996
Missing From
Milan, Tennessee
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/17/1982 (40)
Age 14 years old
Height and Weight 5'4, 120 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description Possibly a t-shirt and boxer shorts, a silver friendship necklace with pendant of half a heart, and probably no shoes or socks.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Cayce has a strawberry birthmark on the underside of her lower left arm.
Details of Disappearance Cayce returned to her family's home on U.S. 45 in Milan, Tennessee at approximately 12:30 a.m. on August 16, 1996 after a back-to-school party at Double Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the church she and her family attended. A chaperone dropped her off there and watched her go into the house.
Her mother, Cindy McDaniel, arrived at the residence between approximately 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. Cindy noticed the television set in Cayce's bedroom was turned on and the clothes she'd worn to the party were lying out. There was a bowl of cookies and some milk sitting on the floor, and the back door was ajar, but it would often come often accidentally.
There were no indications of a struggle. It appeared as if Cayce had changed into her nightclothes, then left the house for some reason. She has never been heard from again.
Her mother didn't report her disappearance immediately, because Cayce would often spend the night at a friend's house. They didn't have a phone at home, so the next morning Cayce used the phone at a family friend's house to call Cayce's friend. When Cindy found out she wasn't there, she had the family friend drive her around to look for her. She contacted police after ten hours after Cayce was last seen.
A sketch of a possible suspect in Cayce's disappearance is posted with this summary. He was in his early twenties, with a dark complexion, dark hair, dark eyes and a scar below his right eye. He was approximately 6'0 and 170 pounds and wore an earring in his right ear. He has never been identified.
There were two unconfirmed sightings of Cayce in her hometown after her disappearance. Witnesses said the girl was accompanied by an unidentified man in his twenties. Authorities do not know if the girl was actually Cayce or just another young female who looked like her.
A suspect was named in Cayce's disappearance in July 2018: Finis Ewin "Pete" Hill.A photo of Hill is posted with this summary. Cayce knew him and called him "Uncle Pete", and he had been a suspect from early on in the investigation, but his identity was not publicly released until 2018.
Hill has an extensive criminal record, including aggravated rape and aggravated burglary charges. He was convicted of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault after he attempted to abduct a woman in 2003. Only a few months after his release from prison in 2018, he was later charged with crossing state lines to have sex with a fifteen-year-old girl.
He thought he was corresponding with the girl's mother online; in fact, he was speaking to police. In the online messages, Hill stated he loved to rape and beat women, and that he'd had sex with a fourteen-year-old girl before. He traveled to a Southaven, Mississippi hotel to have sex with the woman and her daughter, and FBI agents were waiting for him there. They found marijuana, alcohol, condoms and sex toys in his car.
Cindy said she and her boyfriend were at a party on the night of Cayce's disappearance, and that Hill left just as they were arriving. She said Hill had made repeated sexual advances towards her, and she had turned him down every time and threatened to tell her boyfriend he was bothering her, and Hill was angry about this.
Hill's wife had given him an alibi for that night, but her story turned out to be untrue. Cindy theorizes that Hill thought she was home alone and went to her residence to get revenge for the rejection, only to find Cayce there instead. She said Cayce would have trusted him enough to let him inside the house.
In October 2019, 23 years after Cayce's disappearance, Hill was charged with her rape and murder. He is awaiting trial in that ; authorities haven't said much about the evidence against him.
Cayce was a freshman in high school in 1996. Her loved ones describe her as a good student and well-behaved teenager; they do not believe she would have run away and not contacted her family for this long. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.
Investigating Agency
Milan Police Department
731-686-3800
Other
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Child Protection Education of America
Missing Child: Cayce McDaniel
Tennessee Internet Crime Information Center
America's Most Wanted
The Oak Ridger Online
The Jackson Sun
MCTV
Unsolved in the News
NamUs
Searching for Ghosts Podcast
WREG Memphis

Missing Person Photos

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found (such as at sea), or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2 to 5 percent of missing children in Europe. By contrast, some missing person cases remain unresolved for many years. Laws related to these cases are often complex since, in many jurisdictions, relatives and third parties may not deal with a person's assets until their death is considered proven by law and a formal death certificate issued. The situation, uncertainties, and lack of closure or a funeral resulting when a person goes missing may be extremely painful with long-lasting effects on family and friends. A number of organizations seek to connect, share best practices, and disseminate information and images of missing children to improve the effectiveness of missing children investigations, including the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), as well as national organizations, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the US, Missing People in the UK, Child Focus in Belgium, and The Smile of the Child in Greece.

Resources for Missing Persons

According to current statistics, 4,000 people in the United States go missing every day. Sometimes a child suddenly vanishes from the bus stop or the local park or even from their own yard or bedroom. Or a teenager doesn�t return home after a walk to the neighborhood grocery store or a bike ride or a party with friends. Other times, an adult is mysteriously absent from their job or neighbors haven�t seen them for several days, and family and friends haven�t heard from them either.

Missing Person Case Updates with Photos