Cynthia Lynn Sumpter, 5, was last seen on April 27, 1974, playing outside her Elm Street apartment complex in San Jose between about 1:30 and 1:45 p.m. Her mother, Linda Sumpter, searched for roughly half an hour before notifying police. Despite a massive search, Cynthia was never found.

Witnesses reported seeing her speaking with a man in a blue car, described as a young male with blonde hair and a mustache, though that sighting was never confirmed. In the weeks before she disappeared, Cynthia had been sexually molested near her home and her mother had pressed charges against the alleged perpetrator.

Two individuals became persons of interest. Neighbor Antonio Madrid, the stepfather of one of Cynthia’s friends who lived about 100 yards away, died by suicide two days after Cynthia vanished; police later found a bloodstained shirt and blonde hairs in his car. Convicted murderer Eugene Joseph Wesley was also questioned and took two polygraph exams whose results suggested he knew more than he disclosed, but he was never charged. Cynthia’s case remains unsolved; her mother, who later moved to Idaho and remarried, continues to hold out hope that Cynthia could still be found alive.