On the afternoon of June 13, 1965, two-year-old Elizabeth Ann Gill, called Beth or Betsy, vanished from the front yard of her family home on South Lorimer Street in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She was last seen about 4:00 p.m. carrying a small pail of sand while older siblings watched; her brown, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes were noted in descriptions. An extensive search by law enforcement and hundreds of volunteers turned up no trace.

Investigators initially considered the nearby Mississippi River but largely discounted that theory because a toddler would have had to cross streets and railroad tracks and descend a bluff. Attention shifted to a couple staying at a motel behind the Gill home who left abruptly on June 14, abandoning a disabled light tan 1965 Chevrolet truck; they became primary suspects. A 1970 prison confession by Phillip Odell Clark claimed Beth died in a car accident, but his changing stories produced no evidence.

The FBI reclassified the case in 2010 as a non-family abduction. Family members have held vigils and kept the case in the public eye; the investigation remains open. If anyone knew the couple at the motel, the truck, or has information about Beth’s whereabouts, please come forward.