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

Constance Christine Smith




Connie, date, approximate 1952; William Henry Redmond
Date Missing 07/16/1952
Missing From
Salisbury, Connecticut
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 07/11/1942 (80)
Age 10 years old
Height and Weight 5'0, 85 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A red long-sleeved zippered windbreaker, a brown bandana halter top, navy blue shorts with plaid cuffs, tan leather shoes and a red hair ribbon. The clothes had attached nametags. Possibly carrying a black zippered purse containing photos of her friends.
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Light brown hair, blue eyes. Although her given name is Constance, almost all agencies refer to her by her nickname, Connie. She was tall and well-developed in 1952 and looked older than her age; she may have grown tall in adulthood. She is very nearsighted and is supposed to wear eyeglasses, but hers were broken when she disappeared. She would be unable to read without her glasses. Connie was very suntanned at the time of her disappearance, and her eyeteeth were just erupting. She has a slight scar under her right nostril.
Details of Disappearance Connie resided in Wyoming at the time of her disappearance; her grandfather was a governor of that state. She was spending part of the summer of 1952 at Camp Sloane in Salisbury, Connecticut. She had an altercation with a group of female campers during the morning of July 16, 1952 and her nose was bloodied from the incident.
Connie told her tent mates that she was skipping breakfast that morning and was walking to the camp dispensary, where she planned to drop off an ice pack she'd used the previous evening when she fell out of her tent and bruised her hip. She left the ice pack in her tent and never went to the dispensary; instead, she walked away from the camp and down Indian Mountain Road.
Connie was seen picking daisies along the roadside and asked several people how she could get to Lakeville, Connecticut, about half a mile from Camp Sloane. She was apparently homesick and with only one week left of her stay at Camp Sloane, she decided to leave the premises.
Connie was last seen walking on U.S. Route 44 in Salisbury later in the day. She had her thumb out and was apparently attempting to hitchhike, perhaps to Lakeville. She didn't have any money or extra clothes with her. Connie was never heard from again.
Camp counselors discovered Connie was missing in the afternoon hours when they found the dispensary ice pack still inside her tent. An extensive search did not produce any clues as to her whereabouts. There have been many suspects in Connie's disappearance throughout the years, but no one has been charged in her .
One theory is that she attempted to run away from camp and go to one of her parents, who were divorced. Neither of her parents saw or heard from her after her disappearance, however. Her mother last saw Connie when she visited her at camp two days before her disappearance; Connie was in good spirits at the time and asked for permission to stay at the camp longer, but she didn't seem to mind when her mother said no.
One of the possible suspects is William Henry Redmond, a former carnival worker who was charged with murdering an eight-year-old girl in 1951, one year prior to Connie's disappearance. A photo of him is posted with this summary.
In the 1980s, Redmond allegedly told another prison inmate he had killed four people during his lifetime. He was eventually sent back to his home state of Nebraska when it was determined that he was too ill to stand trial for the 1951 murder. He died in 1992.
Authorities have been unable to determine if Redmond was in the Connecticut area in 1952 at the time of Connie's disappearance and he passed a polygraph test concerning her . He is still considered a possible suspect in the 1951 disappearance of Beverly Potts from Ohio.
Connie was well-traveled and got on well with adults as well as children in 1952. She loved animals, especially horses. Her grandfather and both her parents are now deceased, her father dying as recently as early 2012. Her remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
Salisbury Police Department
860-435-2938
Connecticut State Police
860-567-6875
Other
The Hartford Courant
NewspaperArchive
The Doe Network
NewsLibrary
Twilight of Innocence: the Disappearance of Beverly Potts
Porchlight International for the Missing & Unidentified
The Charleston Gazette
Kidnapping, Murder and Mayhem
The Republican-American
The News-Times
Clueless in New England: The Unsolved Disappearances of Paula Welden, Connie Smith and Katherine Hull

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