Bump
Trudy has been missing 14 years today. Come home soon.
video & more at link."She was worried, yet hopeful. You're just like in limbo. You don't know where your child is. Nobody will come forward and tell you where your child is. You don't know the truth about what happened. She spent 18 years looking for her baby," said Carlson.
That's a feeling Dennis Harker with the Quad Cities Missing Persons Network remembers all too well. He says the difference is that he got closure when his son's body was found. Brenda never did.
"Maybe now she's hugging Trudy. Whenever you've loss somebody especially if you've loss a child, sometimes you just want to die yourself so you can go see them again," said Dennis Harker. "Maybe now they're reunited."
Nineteen years later, Trudy still is missing but never forgotten by the community that continues to call police with a few tips each week.
"People care about this case," Moline police detective Michael Griffin said. "She was an 11-year-old girl, an innocent of our society. I think that plays on the emotions of a lot of people."
He's hoping those emotions will help solve the case and provide some peace to Trudy's family.
The community is invited to a public vigil to mark the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of Trudy Appleby. The vigil is scheduled for Sunday, August 21 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 167 Avenue of the Cities, East Moline, Ill.
Trudy was last seen on August 21, 1996 in the front passenger seat of a gray car in front of her home in Moline, Ill. Despite efforts to locate her locally and nationally, she has not been found.
"There is one person out there who knows exactly what happened to our girl. We want that one missing piece to solve the puzzle. God forbid, not knowing is the worst part,", said Kelly Carlson, a former neighbor of the little girl.
Amber Holderfield was 13 at the time. She says Trudy had told her she had been talking with a man who was 20-years-old, but says she didn't really believe her at the time.
"Her mother went to her grave never having that answer. How would you feel if it was your child?, Carlson said.
Trudy Appleby is still 11 years old to those who knew her, even though she would now be in her 30s. That's because this Sunday, Trudy will have been missing for 20 years.
"There isn't really a day she isn't thought of in our minds," Amber Holderfield, a close childhood friend of Trudy's, told Dateline. "She'd be in her 30s now. There is so much she didn't get to do."
What happened to Trudy continues to tear at the hearts of Amber and her mother Kelly Carlson. And they've made a vow to never give up searching for answers, no matter how few clues there are out there.
Trudy's case fills nearly six file cabinets at the Moline Police Department. Interviews, witness statements and detective notes, organized in various fashions have been gone through multiple times, but no one has been able to put the puzzle of Trudy's fate together.
"It's probably one of the biggest well-known cases in the Quad Cities, especially in cold cases," Detective Michael Griffin, of the Moline Police Department, told Dateline. "We get tips weekly about Trudy. Some of them are far-fetched, of course, but they come in."
Griffin has been the lead investigator on Trudy's case since March of 2015. He was handed the case after receiving training in cold cases -- specifically missing person cold cases. Those are the kinds of cases that are hard to shake when off duty, he said.
When Trudy first vanished, neighbor Kelly Carlson made Trudy's mother a promise. It's one she intends to keep until she reaches the grave.
"She was worried people would forget about Trudy," Kelly said. "But we won't let that happen. Never. I keep my promises."
Tragically, Trudy's mother was hit and killed by a drunk driver in 2014. She died without knowing the fate of her only child. Trudy's grandmother also passed away that year. "I believe they got their answers as soon as they passed over, and that they are with Trudy now. That's a small comfort."
Moline police revealed Sunday night for the first time they believe they know who abducted 11-year old Trudy Appleby on Aug. 21, 1996, but officials dont know why or what happened to her.
Moline detective Michael Griffin told Applebys relatives and friends during a remembrance vigil at First Baptist Church of East Moline that police doubt she is alive. He declined to name the suspect.
We know whos responsible, and while hes probably deceased, his family chooses to lock away the secrets that would end (Trudys) familys nightmare," Griffin said.
The detective is disappointed that the suspected abductors family celebrates life frequently but members refuse to honor the Appleby family bond.
How can you boast of your family time with pictures posted on social media, yet keep this secret? he asked.
http://wqad.com/2016/08/21/detective-on-trudy-appleby-case-says-department-believes-they-know-who-did-it/Griffin said the people to whom he referred have been investigated in the missing person case many times from the beginning.
"We may be beyond the point of justice at this point, but that doesn't mean we just give up. We can continue to look into it, continue to investigate it and talk to people, to give the family and friends the closure that they need that I would want if I was in their position," said Detective Griffin.
In his statement to people at the vigil, Detective Griffin said he would talk about the people believed to have information on Trudy's disappearance, adding that they still live in the area. Detective Griffin said they cannot be named because no one has been charged.
She was last seen getting into an older, four-door silver or grey vehicle with an unknown white male. The male was described as being in his 20's with brown, curly hair.
Trudy's father first noticed something was wrong when he came home from work and things were exactly as he left them.
Police first thought Appleby had ran away.
She didn't take any of her money, she didn't take anything except a swimming suit and a towel. The family believe they know who is responsible for her disappearance, a friend of the family, who is a convicted child molester. He is now in jail on unrelated charges.
A neighbor spotted Trudy inside the car, but couldn't identify who she was with.
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That sounds quite conflicting. First they say they know who did it but is probably deceased, and then they say he's in jail.
Is this two different suspects?