Tania Marie Murrell was six years old when she disappeared in Edmonton on January 20, 1983. She left Grovenor Elementary School around 11:00 a.m. to walk the block-and-a-half to her home for lunch but never arrived. At the time she was wearing a blue and white winter coat, green corduroy pants, a black Harley-Davidson T-shirt and brown boots; she had a quarter-sized birthmark on her right temple.

Hundreds of police officers, volunteers, friends and relatives mounted one of the largest searches in the city, combing alleys, ravines and nearby blocks. Her schoolbooks and clothing were never found and the search produced no confirmed trace of Tania. Investigators have long suspected abduction and likely homicide and have focused over the years on a family friend in his 30s who frequently visited the Murrell home and left Edmonton for Ontario in spring 1983.

Tania’s disappearance deeply affected her family; her parents later divorced and both died without learning what happened to their daughter. The Edmonton Police Service still lists the case as an outstanding missing child investigation and has issued age-progressed sketches in hopes of new leads. If anyone knew Tania, the Murrell family’s connections, or saw a little girl walking from Grovenor Elementary that day, please contact police.