Shemaeah Gunnel was five years old when she vanished from her Yuma, Arizona apartment on February 10, 1989. Shemaeah, an African American child with black hair and black eyes and a distinctive birthmark behind the right side of her neck, lived with her 26‑year‑old mother Valerie Gunnell and nine‑month‑old sister Lecresha Kirklin on North 1st Avenue. Valerie’s boyfriend, Alvie Copeland Kiles, had moved in about a month earlier after being released from prison.

On February 11 police found Valerie beaten to death and wrapped in a blanket; the apartment showed a violent struggle and blood, including two large pools in the children’s bedroom. Kiles had been seen driving Valerie’s car and reportedly told a neighbor he had killed Valerie and the two children, saying he disposed of the girls’ bodies in the Colorado River. A week later Lecresha’s body was recovered in an irrigation canal in Mexico; Shemaeah’s remains have never been located, though her blood was found on a mattress in the apartment. Kiles was convicted for the murders of Valerie, Lecresha, and Shemaeah, but Shemaeah’s final resting place remains unknown.

If anyone has information about where Shemaeah’s remains might be, please come forward.