Anthony Franko was 10 when he left home in Lemmon Valley, Nevada, on the morning of May 9, 1983, for the half-mile walk to Lemmon Valley Elementary School and never arrived. He had just won a blue ribbon at a 4-H show the day before and was wearing a red San Francisco 49ers t-shirt, blue jeans, a blue hooded down jacket, and hiking boots. Witnesses later reported seeing him on the south end of Fremont Street, in a cul-de-sac, talking to an unknown person seated in a rusted vehicle described as possibly a Ford Pinto or a Camaro — that encounter is the last known sighting.

School staff did not notice his absence that morning because automated attendance calls were not in use; his family learned he was missing only after he failed to make his usual after-school call to his mother.

Investigators have long treated the disappearance as an abduction by a non-family member. Leads over the years included a defrocked priest who was briefly a person of interest in 2002, but searches of his property produced no evidence linking him to Tony. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has kept the case open and released age-progressed photos in hopes of new tips. If anyone knew Tony, saw a rusted Pinto or Camaro in Lemmon Valley on May 9, 1983, or has information about his disappearance, please come forward.