Talk about a system that failed a child.
If she was removed from the home as an infant and not returned for 4 years how was there insufficient evidence to prosecute? There had to be evidence sufficient to remove the child from her mother for a considerable period of time.
"A neighbor at her apartment building, who also happened to be Pamela's maternal aunt, saw her on March 6, 1979." I don't see any DNA listed on the DOE network. I wonder if the maternal aunt is still alive and/or her children. There has to be something on file for there to be exclusions on NamUs, I would think. Also, I wonder what the aunt knows about the child's whereabouts.
If I found the mother and step-father documents, it looks like they had a child in 1980 who died as an infant. But I can't confirm.