Tiwana Denise Cheatham was eight years old when she disappeared from Aiken, South Carolina, on August 11, 1989. That afternoon she had been visiting relatives; after a disagreement about coming home she took some spare change from a kitchen jar and left. The last confirmed sighting was about 5:30 p.m. at the Quik Stop convenience store a few blocks from her home on Jack Jones Street. Another account says she borrowed a quarter to use a phone booth and was headed for ice cream.

Tiwana was an African American child about four feet one inch tall, roughly 70 pounds, with black hair usually in braids and a dark skin discoloration on either her left arm or leg. She was wearing a white shirt, red-flower patterned shorts and white tennis shoes. Reported missing the next day, the investigation included an FBI inquiry after a tip she might be in another state and an early arrest of her grandmother on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly being untruthful; the grandmother was not named as a suspect in the disappearance. Tiwana reportedly had run away before, and investigators also looked into relatives as a possible location.

No solid leads have been reported that explain what happened after she left the store. Did anyone in Aiken in August 1989 see Tiwana or know where she might have gone that evening?