Family still searching for girl taken from Cape Girardeau porch

The family of Elizabeth Gill believes "Beth", who disappeared 58 years ago, might still be alive.

Elizabeth Gill vanished from Cape Girardeau late afternoon June 13, 1965, and was never seen again. She was only 2 1/2 years old, the youngest of 10 children. Known by her family as Beth, the toddler was last seen playing on the front porch as her siblings were getting ready for church.

A national podcast, "Dateline: Missing in America", published an episode Wednesday, June 15, close to the anniversary of her likely abduction. Beth Gill's family and investigators believe the most likely scenario is that Gill was kidnapped, potentially by a woman wanting a baby.

The family is hoping additional national exposure will help Beth, if she's still alive, to find them, rather than the other way around. Beth's DNA was collected and entered into public and criminal databases.

It's hoped the advent of genealogy DNA testing sites such as "23 and Me" might spark a discovery all these years later. Martha Gill Hamilton, Elizabeth Gill's sister, said they've already received a tip from the podcast episode.

A composite image of how Gill might have aged.National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

A composite image of how Gill might have aged.National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Beth Gill would be 60 years old.

If she's still alive, she might be seeking her biological parents and siblings, the family said. Two dozen women who were orphaned or adopted have come forward to be tested, but so far none have matched Beth Gill's DNA, according to Gill Hamilton.

Family members and investigators believe Beth may have been taken by a couple of "travelers" in a Ford Thunderbird. They were said to have been going door to door from town to town selling purses.

The week before the girl was last seen, Beth's mother, Anola Gill-Bowerman, was carrying things to her car, and she found a female stranger talking to the child near the street in a Ford Thunderbird, a vehicle not familiar to people in the neighborhood.

The mother, now deceased, told police about this interaction after the couple had been identified as acting in suspicious ways leading up to Beth's disappearance. Gill Hamilton said she learned of a similar situation years later when a maid working at the hotel nearby, said the same woman had tried to call Beth over to her, but Beth's brothers, who were playing in the yard, called her back to them.

Early news reports at the time of the disappearance quoted neighbors who said the Gill siblings played down by the Mississippi River, but Gill Hamilton said this was not true. The river, three blocks away, was a forbidden area for the children and, Beth, only 2, would not have been able to make it that far without being seen by search parties first. Beth was not one to wander off alone, and the family dog was protective of her.

Searches were conducted in the river, but no child's body was found. All the evidence points to an abduction rather than a toddler who wandered off, Gill Hamilton said.

Investigators learned that the owners of the Thunderbird had ordered car parts from an area car parts dealer. The manager of the car parts place had the vehicle identification number. When the car parts manager called the hotel asking for the people who ordered the part, they'd already left town.

A nearby gas station manager wrote down license plate numbers, because he believed the couple in the car were trying to scam his business. They were wanting to trade purses for gas. The gas station manager wrote down their license plate number again when they arrived days later, and the license plate number had changed. The license plate number was different from what the hotel had on file as well, meaning they'd changed their plates at least three times while visiting Cape Girardeau.

Gill Hamilton has been following the trail for decades. She said the owners of the vehicle are believed to be tied to a group known as the "Terrible Williamsons", a notorious group of con artists, who use evasive tactics like changing their names and identities to escape accountability.

The trail even led to the interview of the woman believed to be the woman in the Thunderbird. But she was in her 80s when she was interviewed, and the investigation did not progress.

The trail has not gone cold for Gill Hamilton, so she tries to keep her sister's name, and the circumstances surrounding it, in the public eye.

If Beth Gill is out there, the Gill Family wants her to know how they can be found.

If she's alive, "I don't want to cause any problems for her," Gill Hamilton said. "If she doesn't want anyone to know, I can't make her accept that and I wouldn't want to turn someone's life upside down."

But Gill Hamilton thinks about her sister nearly every day, and wonders what happened. She has collected over 1,000 files on her computer, related to her research of the case. She's become an advocate and volunteer for missing persons cases, having become involved with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Some of her work on her sister's case has helped others find their families.

"There are reasons I've been getting little pushes to keep searching," she said. "I think of it often. Life goes on, and there are other things that have to get done today. But there's a reason we're still searching."