CA CA - Julie Elizabeth Soracco, 15, Placerville, 1 Aug 1977

[theshadow45]

Julie has been missing for about 47 years today.

 

[Sweetluv]

Julie was not reported missing until 2019 and her disappearance date is known to be 1977 or 1978. Not exact..
She had a picture that was left behind of a girl named Tracy....if Tracy's identity is ever found out, she may know where Julie was going to or who she hung out with at the time. Julie spent time in Foster care and with her Grandfather. I believe her sister now searches for her.

 

[alb1on]

It is interesting to look at the public records for Julie's father, Frank Soracco, on Ancestry. This includes many newspaper cuttings (mainly from the Mountain Democrat, the local paper in Placerville) running from the early 50s when he was a high school football star to the 70s. Whilst it is easy to judge with hindsight the cuttings do suggest a small town which was so out of step with more progressive parts of California that it may have been transplanted from Alabama. In the later 60s and 70s he returned to speak to school children about his experience of the Selma civil rights movement, only to be met with locals objecting to him being allowed to speak and others demanding to put a counter view. And the attached clipping about his dismissal reinforces the image of an exceptionally regressive local population. In such a town it seems likely that they would happily airbrush from their existence a local troublemaker and his difficult teenage daughter. I even wonder if someone may have seen her as a possible object for revenge on the father. It would certainly explain her grandfathers silence. To all intents and purposes Frank Soracco was run out of town and this, combined with the breakdown of the relationship with Julie's mother, explains his absence.

 

[Rastus]

HI All,

I've been looking through the year books for 1975,1976,1977 and 1978 El Dorado High School and apart from one image in the 1978 edition there are no images of Julie and her name is not listed in any of them. They contain all students at that time.

See image attached , it doesn't move the case along and it's not a positive id of her but I thought the girl in green looked like her. Photo is from the 1978 year book. Seems a lot of girls from that time period had that haircut

Based on what we have, IMO, we can rule out August 1 1977 or before as when she went missing. She has a 1977/78 High School Student Card, which wouldn't have been issued until late August or September 1977. The card has 40 slots around the outside signifying 40 weeks of school, only one slot is punched out.

In addition, over on Facebook a few years ago the PI helping out her sister asked a group if anyone knew her/had information. One guy mentioned he remembered her, how fitting in as the new person can be hard.

Throw all that together with her not featuring in the end of year 1978 school year book by name and I believe we can be confident she wasn't at El Dorado very long then went missing. Probably went something like this :

• Goes to her Grandfather's place in Placerville in summer break 1977, was only going to be a temporary measure.
• May have had a part time summer job at a clothing store , was mentioned on Facebook
• Goes to live in Foster Care (Aldea) sometime during summer break prior to school starting
• Starts school late August 1977, gets issued Student Card (she's been identified as having been at school)
• Judging by the lack of use of the Student Card, went missing September/October/November 1977

While the above doesn't move any discovery along, I've wondered why the August 1 1977 date was never challenged based on the school card which couldn't have been issued that early.