Without a trace: 50 years after she vanished, Beth Gill's family keeps searching

Saturday will pass like any other for most people, but one local family likely will spend the day preoccupied with thoughts of their long-missing loved one.

An age-progressed photo shows how Elizabeth Gill might have looked at age 49. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)

At age 2 1/2, Elizabeth Ann Gill went missing June 13, 1965 -- and the search continues.

Headlines through the decades express the public's frustration with the fruitless investigations and mark the passage of time: "Another Lead Discarded as Hunt for Gill Goes On." "Betsy Gill Missing Now For 3 Weeks." "Betsy Gill Gone 13 Months, But Hunt Persists." "Betsy will be 21: Where Is She?"

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we would be waiting 50 years for answers," Gill's sister, Martha Hamilton, said.

Gill -- called "Real Life 'Gone Girl'" by CBS last fall -- disappeared that day from in front her family's home on Lorimier Street in Cape Girardeau.

Beth, as she was known to her family, was not the type of child to wander off, her father said in the June 17, 1965, edition of the Southeast Missourian.

Information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and previous reporting describes Gill as a white female with brown hair and blue eyes.

An age-progressed photo by the center shows what Gill might look like today.

Leads

On Jan. 20, 1966, the Southeast MIssourian ran this photo of Civil Air Patrol members lending the Cape Girardeau Police Department a hand in mailing posters carrying a picture and description of Elizabeth Ann "Betsy" Gill. Betsy, 3, has been missing from her parents' home at 324 S. Lorimier St., since June 13. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gill. The patrol members stuffed the posters into envelopes addressed to every police department, sheriff's office and highway patrol in the United States in the continuing effort to find the missing girl. More than 9,000 posters were sent out Saturday. The patrol members, standing from left, are: Robert Young, Jim Roche and Robert Snider. Seated in back, from left, are Gary Adams and Jim Lowes. Seated in front, from left, are Gary Lewis and Richard Lowes. (Southeast Missourian archive photo)

At the time of Gill's disappearance, theories on what happened to her evolved from the possibility of her wandering off to drowning in the river to, finally, kidnapping, and authorities have chased countless leads over the years.

One of the first leads to emerge was a report of two vehicles seen in the vicinity of the home the week before Gill went missing.

Then-Cape Girardeau police chief Irvin E. Beard said at the time, "This is the best lead that we have had in the case."

The two vehicles, one a 1965 Thunderbird and the other a 1965 Chevrolet pickup truck, were believed to be occupied by a man and a woman selling purses door-to-door in the area.

After consulting the Alabama Highway Patrol, however, authorities learned the vehicles' Alabama license plates likely were registered to different vehicles.

The Thunderbird and the truck never were found.

Other leads from early in the search were discarded along the way.

One involved a lost little girl in St. Louis matching Gill's description. Another was based on a report of a man and small child who had taken a car from a lot behind a tavern on U.S. 61, but that child turned out to be the man's daughter.

In a third vague report, a Cape Girardeau man told officers a car with Kentucky plates passed him as he was driving to Carbondale, Illinois, and the female passenger tried to hide, looking as though she was concealing something.

Police were not able to find the car.

In 1970, Phillip Odell Clark, who had been convicted of murdering a Cape Girardeau woman, came forward, claiming to have hit Gill with his vehicle and disposed of the body.

The Cape Girardeau County sheriff at the time, Ivan E. McLain, decided not to pursue the lead, however, after Clark changed his story about what he had done with Gill's body.

The search effort

Within 30 minutes of Gill's disappearance, the search was on.

Volunteers, law enforcement and K-9 units performed several organized searches of Gill's neighborhood.

Officers searched every abandoned car, shed and rotten tree stump in the area in hopes of locating the missing girl.

Photos and information on Gill were distributed to law enforcement agencies throughout the country, and eventually the case became famous wordlwide after it was picked up by the Associated Press.

Donations came in to fund a reward for information leading to Gill's return. A total of $1,795 was collected; adjusted for inflation, that would equal almost $13,500 today.

Few solid leads have surfaced in recent years, although the FBI reclassified the case from missing person to kidnapping in 2010.

Twelve women have undergone DNA testing, but no matches have been found.

With more than 5,200 followers, the "Finding Beth Gill" Facebook group has been helpful to the family, Hamilton said.

"It's helped us in a number of ways, but one thing it does is it encourages us to keep going," Hamilton said. "The second thing it does is it spreads the word further and further."

Hamilton said a woman whose friends heard about Gill via Facebook encouraged her to submit DNA for testing.

"... She was raised by a woman who was not her biological mother and has never really known how she came to be with that woman."

Hamilton said the woman was dropped of at a home and told the woman there was her mother; it was only in the last few years she realized the person she was living with was not her real mother.

"There's other cases we've come across as prospective 'Beths' that were adopted under very strange circumstances" because proper paperwork wasn't filed, Hamilton said. She has registered Gill's information on an adoption search site.

After CBS ran an article on 48 Hours Crimesider in October, Hamilton said, numerous leads came into the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

"We get leads that have substance," but also many others that don't pan out under police investigation, Hamilton said.

The family still has private investigators working on the case.

"We certainly appreciate all the support that we've gotten from the community, from Facebook friends, from everyone who has reached out and tried to help," Hamilton said.

Anyone with information on Gill's disappearance or current whereabouts is asked to call 1-800-843-5678 or the Cape Girardeau Police Department at 335-6621, extension 2.

kwebster@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Lorimier Street, Cape Girardeau, MO