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

Peggy C. Rahn




Peggy, date, approximate 1969; Gerald Schaefer; Kenneth Shilts
Date Missing 12/29/1969
Missing From
Pompano Beach, Florida
Missing Classification Endangered Missing
Sex Female
Race
White
Date of Birth 10/21/1960 (61)
Age 9 years old
Height and Weight 4'4, 67 pounds
Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink baby doll bikini bathing suit with fringe.
Associated Vehicle(s) Metallic blue 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet with a black vinyl top and wire wheel covers
Markings and/or Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Peggy has a small scar near her right eye and a birthmark on the back of her her right knee. She has freckles on her nose and cheeks. Her two lower eyeteeth are missing. She has between four and six warts on her hands, including one on the back of her right hand between her first and second finger, and one on the inside of her left palm. Her hair was shoulder-length at the time of her disappearance.
Details of Disappearance Peggy and a friend,Wendy Stevenson, were last seen in Pompano Beach, Florida on December 29, 1969. They had gone to the beach separately; a family friend took Peggy and Wendy went with her uncle. The girls met at the beach by chance and began playing together. They both attended Palmview Elementary School and had mutual friends, but they didn't know each other well prior to that day.
At 1:00 p.m., Peggy and Wendy decided to walk to the parking lot to buy ice cream. A convenience store clerk reported seeing a man buying ice cream cones for Peggy and Wendy and cigarettes for himself. He identified the girls from photographs.
The clerk described their companion as a Caucasian man, 25 to 30 years old, about six feet tall and 190 to 200 pounds, with sandy blond hair, blue/gray eyes, a two-inch scar on the back of his right hand between his thumb and first finger, and a humped nose. He was wearing a red turtleneck, blue dungaree pants, and a gray pinstriped sports coat, and drove a metallic blue 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet with a black vinyl top and wire wheel covers. Peggy and Wendy have never been heard from again.
Authorities initially suspected both girls had drowned. However, nobody saw them in distress in the water that day, their bodies were not recovered, and Wendy was known to be a good swimmer. The drowning theory was eventually discarded as implausible. The man who took Peggy to the beach was questioned as a possible suspect. He cooperated with the investigation, passed a polygraph, and was cleared.
One suspect in the girls' s was Kenneth Guy Shilts, a serial child molester who was arrested in Alabama six weeks after Peggy and Wendy vanished. He kept a coded notebook apparently recording his crimes, and there was an entry that said "Peggy and Wendy - Pompano Beach."
Shilts admitted having been in central Florida around the time the girls went missing, but denied having had anything to do with their disappearances. Authorities were never able to prove his involvement. He died in 1991. A photo of Shilts is posted below with summary.
The serial killer Gerard John Schaefer Jr. is another suspect in the children's disappearances. A photograph of him is posted with this summary. Schaefer is a suspect in the deaths and disappearances of dozens of girls and young women, includingNancy Leichner, Pamela Nater andCarmen Hallock. The family ofDebora Lowe, who disappeared in 1972, believes he was involved in her as well.
Schaefer was only convicted of two murders. Prosecutors publicly accused him of killing Peggy and Wendy in 1973. He denied it at that time, but in 1989 he wrote a letter and confessed to murdering the girls. He was never charged in their s, however, and was himself murdered in prison in 1995.
Wendy and Peggy's bodies have never been located.
Investigating Agency
Broward County Sheriff's Office
954-493-8477
Other
The Doe Network
The Crime Library
The Waterloo Daily Courier
The Appleton Post-Crescent
The Miami Herald
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
The Panama City News
The Palm Beach Post
Florida Today

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