On the morning of July 27, 1998, baby Allyson Kathleen Dalton was last seen at about 7:50 a.m. with her mother, 20-year-old Sylena Jo Dalton, at their apartment on South Charles Street in Strasburg, Virginia. Later that day, at approximately 2:25 p.m., a coworker checked the apartment and found Sylena dead on the couch from multiple stab wounds; Allyson was missing from the scene.

Investigators believe Sylena was likely killed between 9:15 and 10:30 a.m. Neighbors reported no sounds of a struggle, though one neighbor said they saw a man placing a baby into a truck. Several of Allyson’s baby bottles were also missing from the home. The murder weapon was not recovered.

Authorities focused early on people close to Sylena. Her sometime boyfriend, Daniel E. Pompell, said he had knocked at the apartment about 9:00 a.m. and left when no one answered; he was later treated as a prime suspect and faced a wrongful death suit that was dismissed for lack of evidence. Allyson’s whereabouts remain unknown and her father has not been charged in the child’s disappearance. Does anyone have information that could help locate Allyson or clarify what happened that day?