Ann Gotlib was 12 when she disappeared from Louisville, Kentucky, on the evening of June 1, 1983. Last seen between 5:30 and 6:00 PM after spending the day at the Jewish Community Center and visiting a friend, she was at Bashford Manor Mall, a short walk from her family’s apartment. Her bicycle was found against a department store pillar with its broken kickstand down, a detail her mother said Ann would not have done herself. She was wearing navy blue shorts with white stripes, a red and white t-shirt, beige tennis shoes and gold earrings with purple stones.

The FBI joined the search and local investigators pursued thousands of leads; early canine tracking led to a nearby apartment but produced no definitive result. Over the years investigators considered multiple persons of interest, including a sex offender who had an alibi and a death row inmate whose 1990 confession proved unsubstantiated. In 2008 police publicly named Gregory Lewis Oakley Jr. as the primary suspect; Oakley had been investigated in 1984 and later reportedly discussed the case with others but died in 2002. No body has been found and no conviction exists.

Anyone who knew Ann, her family, or who was in the Bashford Manor Mall area on June 1, 1983, is asked to come forward with information that might finally resolve what happened to her.