Thirteen-year-old Sharon Lynn Pretorius vanished from her Dayton, Ohio neighborhood on September 28, 1973. A freshman at Fairview High School, she returned from school, had a piano lesson, then went out to collect money for her Dayton Journal Herald newspaper route. Her brother last saw her leave the family home on Cornell Drive around 5:30 p.m.; she wore a yellow long-sleeved sweater, blue jeans, and white sneakers and carried her collection book, but never reached any customers.

Early procedures delayed a formal missing-person report until 24 hours after her mother called the Dayton Police Department that night. Witnesses and family insisted Sharon would not have run away; she was described as studious, modest, active in church and band. Investigators followed many leads: one witness later said a girl matching Sharon’s description was seen struggling with a bearded white man near a dark blue 1965 Ford at Cornell and Philadelphia Drive, and police received a ransom call that was deemed a hoax. A 1976 tip from an inmate prompted an excavation where a house once stood, but no remains were found. Sharon’s family held a memorial service in 2006.

What details from that neighborhood on September 28, 1973 might still be remembered by someone who lived there then?