Bonita Sanders was a one-year-old girl who disappeared from the Virginia Court Apartments on Baltic Avenue in Atlantic City on the evening of September 14, 1986. She was last seen sitting in a stroller on the front porch wearing a short-sleeved yellow shirt, blue pants, and blue and white sandals while eating a popsicle; an hour later the stroller was found empty and her mother reported her missing.

Investigators focused on inconsistencies in the mother’s account and noted a pattern of troubling behavior, including the prior abandonment of another child and the later abandonment of a newborn about a month after Bonita vanished. Bonita’s father, who was incarcerated at the time, was ruled out as a suspect and has said he never believed the mother’s story. Law enforcement has said they believe Bonita was likely not abducted and may have died the day she disappeared, with her body concealed; one theory considered is accidental choking on the popsicle stick, but no evidence has substantiated any theory.

Searches have continued intermittently, including a 2009 search of a wooded area based on a tip, but nothing definitive has been found. Does anyone who lived in or near Virginia Court Apartments in 1986 have information that could help bring clarity to Bonita’s case?