On the morning of April 20, 1982, eight-year-old Chila Silvernails walked down her driveway on Martins Bluff Road in Kalama, Washington to catch the school bus and never boarded. When she didn’t return that afternoon her mother reported her missing; the next morning Chila’s nearly nude body was found in a creek near Shirley Gordon Road about three miles from her home. An autopsy showed she had been stabbed and asphyxiated.

The case prompted hundreds of interviews and multiple persons of interest but produced no arrest, and the investigation eventually went cold. Investigators repeatedly revisited the file and reexamined evidence as forensic methods evolved. One recurrent suspect was Joseph Kondro, who had dated Chila’s mother and was later convicted of rapes and murders of two other young local girls; similarities in those crimes led authorities to strongly suspect his involvement in Chila’s death. Kondro never admitted responsibility and died in prison in 2012.

The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office keeps the case open and says people with information could still help bring justice for Chila. Did anyone in the Kalama or Longview area at the time have contact with Chila, Kondro, or notice anyone acting suspiciously on April 20, 1982?