On a summer day in 1986, 11-year-old Michelle Jolene Lakey, known to family as Jolene, vanished from her Scranton neighborhood. On August 26 she had visited her mother at Mercy Hospital and was last seen walking on North Washington Avenue toward her home in the 1300 block. That evening she planned to sleep over at a friend’s on Myrtle Street. Witnesses saw her speaking to someone in a light yellow car about a block from her house, and it is believed she may have gotten into that vehicle. She was wearing dark blue sweatpants, a white t-shirt with purple trim and a tie in the front, and brown sandals.

Police initially hesitated to call this an abduction because no one reported seeing her forced into a vehicle and no ransom demand was made. Searches turned up no significant evidence. In 1990 a local mechanic, Frank Osellanie, who later was convicted in an unrelated child murder, became a person of interest; he admitted giving Jolene rides home but denied involvement and was never charged. The case remains an unsolved, non-family abduction and her family continues to mark the anniversary by retracing the route she would have taken home.

If anyone knew Michelle, saw her that day, or remembers the light yellow car or who was driving it, please come forward with information.