Frankie Darlene Horsley was 18 and a young, single mother when she left her Fayetteville, North Carolina home on March 10, 1983, to buy medicine for her 18-month-old son. She never returned and was reported missing to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office four days later. Family members stressed she would not have voluntarily abandoned her child.

A week after her disappearance Frankie’s locked car was found on Interstate 20 West in South Carolina near the 44-mile marker, pointed toward Georgia. Some clothing was inside but the keys were missing. Investigators later interviewed a person of interest, and the case is treated as an active homicide investigation. Key family witnesses have since died and memories have faded, complicating the long-running inquiry.

Anyone who knew Frankie, her routines, who she was with in early March 1983, or who may have information about the car being left on I-20 is asked to come forward.