CA CA - Michelle Pulsifer, 3, Huntington Beach, July 1969

Just saw this on Dateline. Her father is amazing he shouldve had custody.
As for Donna...what could a 3 year old possibly do to deserve to get harmed?
I'm amazed at LE for not looking into this case in 69. She would have been found then. another example of injustice...no justice for michelle...michelle pulsifer is our caylee anthony.
 
Just saw this on Dateline. Her father is amazing he shouldve had custody.
As for Donna...what could a 3 year old possibly do to deserve to get harmed?
I'm amazed at LE for not looking into this case in 69. She would have been found then. another example of injustice...michelle pulsifer is our caylee anthony.
"We loose our keys, we loose our glasses...but how, in America, do we loose our children?!?!"-Molly Bish's Mother
 
I came across this case on NamUs today of a little girl found in Fontana, CA (San Bernardino County) on February 3, 1973. She is estimated to have died between 1968 and 1972 and been between 2 and 4 years old. I instantly thought of Michelle -- I wonder if this could be her? Fontana isn't that far from Huntington Beach (about 60 miles).
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/8610
 
I don't see any harm on submitting it to authorities!
 
I received an e-mail from Bob Hunter from San Bernardino County Coroner's Office regarding the possible match between the Michelle Pulsifer and the unidentified girl from Fontana --
Kathryn,

Thank you for the information on the possible comparison. I am the unidentified persons coordinator with the department. mtDNA was obtained from our unidentified person and should be checked against the NCIC database. It does not appear Michelle Pulsifer had any dental records or x-rays on file for comparison.

Bob Hunter

I know that Michelle has a brother who would have the same mtDNA as her -- does anyone know if it is on file or how to get in touch with him to ask?
 
I still haven't heard back about Michelle being NamUS UP # 8610, but has been some activity on the Fontana girl's page. Another exclusion was added on June 19, bringing the number of rule-outs to three --
Ricky Bryant, born in 1945, LKA in Wisconsin
Judy Rivera, born in 1961, LKA in California
Irma Rivers-Carlisle, Unknown date of birth, LKA in California
 
It's safe to say Michelle lost her life probably before she was noticed as missing. I just wish we could find her to lay her to rest. She deserves that. What could a toddler possibly do to deserve that...at the hands of her own family?!
 
Michelle Pulsifer has been ruled out as being the little girl in Fontana (NamUs UP # 8610). I really had thought this was her -- I was wrong.
 
Thanks for the update on that, I had wondered how it was going. I really wish we could find her to set her at rest, since we know she is not with us anymore, that's the best we can do. I have always wonder if they through her out in the ocean, if thats why she hasnt been found?
 
Thanks for the update on that, I had wondered how it was going. I really wish we could find her to set her at rest, since we know she is not with us anymore, that's the best we can do. I have always wonder if they through her out in the ocean, if thats why she hasnt been found?

That could be. I wonder if her mom had access to a boat at the time?
 
I wonder...or maybe knew someone else who did? There could be lots of reason remains dont wash up to shore, such as weights, currents, snags, animals in the water, etc.
 
I just saw this on Dateline. Wow, that mother is a piece of work. Even if she herself wasn't guilty of murder you'd think she'd finally open up after Mike Kent died. That just proves to me her silence-based-on-fear-of-him is pure BS. I hope she's in misery for the rest of her miserable life.
 
Wow. Just watched the Dateline rerun about this story on OWN. I can't believe Michelle's own mother was so unbelievably cruel and indifferent when speaking about her daughter, especially her conversation with the investigator. How could a toddler do anything that would make her biological mother say she doesn't care about where she is, what her condition is, and that she is "dead to her"? My eyes rolled into the back of my head when she essentially said Michelle was dead, and then clarified that she meant the child was "dead to her", and she didn't say she was dead. Ridiculous. That woman is cold to the bone and I have no doubt she killed her daughter. Maybe her husband at the time, the stepdad, assisted her, but I am not sure. My gut feeling is that the mother did it, knows exactly what happened, and will never tell anyone. IMHO, she is a sociopath with a thin mask of sanity. All her emotions, stories, actions; they all seem false as can be. I think she enjoys/enjoyed the fact that her ex-husband would never have or know his daughter again, or what happened to her. I just cannot grasp her actions and words regarding her daughter.

The stepdad was a known abuser and possible molester (I do not remember if this was proven by the courts or any documentation), so I do believe it's possible he assaulted her and killed her, accidentally or not. I am sure Donna helped in some way, be it in just disposing the body and lying about it. If Donna was abused, perhaps she took out her own hurt on her daughter and killed her in a fit, just to feel some sense of power or control in a situation where she had little (being in an abusive relationship).

It's so, so sad that justice may never come for that little girl. The judge dropped all charges and said Donna could never be retried in the death of her daughter. She should rot in a hole with no one to care for or about her, the same way she neglected Michelle and tried to erase her existence completely away. I feel so bad for her father and brother. This case is just completely heartbreaking... :tears:
 
Wow. Just watched the Dateline rerun about this story on OWN. I can't believe Michelle's own mother was so unbelievably cruel and indifferent when speaking about her daughter, especially her conversation with the investigator. How could a toddler do anything that would make her biological mother say she doesn't care about where she is, what her condition is, and that she is "dead to her"? My eyes rolled into the back of my head when she essentially said Michelle was dead, and then clarified that she meant the child was "dead to her", and she didn't say she was dead. Ridiculous. That woman is cold to the bone and I have no doubt she killed her daughter. Maybe her husband at the time, the stepdad, assisted her, but I am not sure. My gut feeling is that the mother did it, knows exactly what happened, and will never tell anyone. IMHO, she is a sociopath with a thin mask of sanity. All her emotions, stories, actions; they all seem false as can be. I think she enjoys/enjoyed the fact that her ex-husband would never have or know his daughter again, or what happened to her. I just cannot grasp her actions and words regarding her daughter.

The stepdad was a known abuser and possible molester (I do not remember if this was proven by the courts or any documentation), so I do believe it's possible he assaulted her and killed her, accidentally or not. I am sure Donna helped in some way, be it in just disposing the body and lying about it. If Donna was abused, perhaps she took out her own hurt on her daughter and killed her in a fit, just to feel some sense of power or control in a situation where she had little (being in an abusive relationship).

It's so, so sad that justice may never come for that little girl. The judge dropped all charges and said Donna could never be retried in the death of her daughter. She should rot in a hole with no one to care for or about her, the same way she neglected Michelle and tried to erase her existence completely away. I feel so bad for her father and brother. This case is just completely heartbreaking... :tears:


I watched this a few years ago and was baffled. I read her siblings asked them where Michelle was and they told her "she had to be left behind because they did not have room." Were the other kids abused as well? How were they treated? What do they remember from their childhood in regards to abuse to themselves and Michelle from their parents? In my mind, there is not question about who killed Michelle. I just wonder where she is. The least we could give her is a proper burial. Some people should never be parents. Her mother DID NOT deserve Michelle !!!
 
What proof do they have that 1969 was the last year she was seen alive? Just the brothers memory?! Because this Jane Doe is a dead ringer for Michelle. However, she was found in 1968. All the other info is matching. AND- to get from Cali to Illinois, you drive straight through the city (on a major highway) where this toddler was found. They could have hid her in the moving stuff and discarded her just before they got to their final destination. How better to hide a body than to take it out of state on the way to another state? They would have had to make stops along they way. Could have dumped her while kids were sleeping.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1282ufmo.html
 
Michelle Kelly Pulsifer
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  • Michelle, circa 1969 More photos on Charley Project Site link below
    • Missing Since 07/04/1969
    • Missing From Huntington Beach, California
    • Classification Endangered Missing
    • Sex Female
    • Race White
    • Date of Birth 03/17/1966 (53)
    • Age 3 years old
    • Height and Weight 3'2 - 3'5, 40 - 45 pounds
    • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue or brown eyes.
    Details of Disappearance
    Michelle was last seen sometime during July 1969 in her hometown of Huntington Beach, California. She resided with her mother, Donna Prentice); her mother's boyfriend, James Michael Kent (who went by his middle name); her older brother, Richard Pulsifer Jr., and Kent's young son by a previous relationship. Photographs of Donna and Kent are posted with this case summary.

    Richard Jr. was six years old at the time of his sister's disappearance. He remembers that Michelle tried to hide in his room sometime in the middle of the night, around July 4, and seemed frightened. Prentice went in and took her away and he never saw her again.

    Richard Jr. says he was often abused physically by Kent and that Kent hit Prentice as well. He also recalls that the day after he last saw Michelle, he went into the family's garage and saw a large cardboard box covered with blankets. The box had not been there the last time he was in the garage.

    Prentice found Richard Jr. in the garage and told him to get out of there and stay out. She told him the box contained a motorcycle seat.

    A few days after Michelle vanished, Prentice, Kent, and the two boys packed all their belongings and moved to Illinois. Prentice and Kent told the children that there was not enough room in the car for Michelle, so they were leaving her behind. She did take her own pet cats and dogs with them, however.

    Richard Jr. later said he had been forbidden to ever mention Michelle's name while he was growing up, and his mother and stepfather ignored him whenever he asked what had happened to her. Kent reportedly told his own biological son that he would only discuss Michelle's fate when he was on his deathbed.

    Michelle and Richard Jr.'s father, Richard Pulsifer Sr., was divorced from Prentice. A photograph of him is posted with this case summary. He visited his children every other weekend, but was not notified when they moved.

    He called the police and attempted to file missing persons reports, but since Prentice had full legal custody of Michelle and her brother, no action was taken to find the children. Custody laws at the time often granted a mother complete rights to her children, to the exclusion of the father.

    Richard Sr. eventually found out that Prentice and Kent were living with Richard Jr. in Illinois and that Michelle was not with them. Prentice and Richard Jr. returned to California about a year later, without Michelle.

    When Richard Sr. spoke to his son, Richard Jr. told him he did not know where his sister was and had not seen her since before moving to Illinois. Richard Sr. tried again to file a missing child report for his daughter, but was refused help because Prentice had custody and claimed to know Michelle's whereabouts.

    A few days later, Prentice took Richard Jr. and left again, and Richard Sr. didn't hear from them for years. In 1980, eleven years after Michelle's disappearance, Richard Sr. was served with an order to pay child support, but only for their son.

    The child support papers gave Prentice's address in Wisconsin. She had married Kent after moving to Illinois, but later divorced him and had moved to Wisconsin in 1979, leaving Kent behind in Illinois. She continued to live there for the next 25 years. Richard Sr. called her when he realized where she was, and she refused to tell him where Michelle was.

    A judge ordered that Richard Sr.'s child support payments be withheld until Prentice disclosed Michelle's whereabouts, but Prentice never revealed Michelle's location.

    Richard Jr. moved to California to be with his father after turning 18. He said he did not know where his sister was. Because Prentice never filed a missing person's report for Michelle and the police refused to accept Richard Sr.'s report, her disappearance was not investigated by authorities for over thirty years.

    Michelle's paternal aunt hired a private detective in 2001 to find Michelle. The investigator interviewed Prentice, who said she had given Michelle over to the care of Kent's mother but had not tried to find her or get her back after Kent's mother died of breast cancer in 1972. Prentice stated that she did not contact Michelle again because Kent had become abusive and she was afraid of him.

    The private detective passed on his casefile to police after he was unable to find any record of Michelle following July 4, 1969, and law enforcement began their own investigation at that time.

    In August 2004, Prentice and Kent were arrested and charged with murdering Michelle. Police investigated Michelle's disappearance but could not find a single public record of her after 1969; they concluded that her mother and Kent had murdered her and then moved away quickly so no one would notice her disappearance.

    Kent and Prentice told people in Illinois that they had left the child with relatives in California, but family and friends in California did not have her and had no idea she was missing. People who knew Kent's mother say she never lived with Michelle. By 1969 she was an alcoholic and was already ill with the cancer that would later kill her, so it seems unlikely that she would have agreed to care for a small child.

    Kent cooperated with authorities and confessed to burying Michelle's body in a shallow grave in a remote gorge. Kent claimed that he and Prentice found Michelle lying dead in her bedroom with no signs of injury and he helped Prentice dispose of the remains. He stated that they never discussed the child's death afterwards but he assumed Prentice had killed her, as Michelle had died while in Prentice's care.

    Both suspects pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Kent agreed to waive his right against self-incrimination and give testimony against Prentice before her trial, as he was suffering from diabetes, internal bleeding, and severe liver and kidney problems, and was dying.

    In the weeks before his death in February 2005, however, he fell into a coma, so authorities never got his testimony.

    At her 2007 trial, Prentice denied responsibility for her daughter's death. She said Michelle had simply disappeared and she was too afraid of Kent to ask any questions about it for the next three decades. He had an extensive criminal record, a substance abuse problem, a violent temper, and a history of violence towards women and children.

    The jury was unable to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared. Prentice was retried in 2008, but the jury was again unable to reach a verdict. After the second trial, the judge dismissed the charges, saying there wasn't enough evidence to try her a third time and the case should be closed.

    Michelle's remains have not been found. The canyon she was allegedly buried in has regular floods and unless her body was buried deeply, it may have been washed away by the water or eaten by animals. Foul play is strongly suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.


  • Investigating Agency
    • Orange County District Attorney's Office 714-245-8408
    • Orange County Sheriff's Department 714-425-1900
    Source Information
 

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