Disappearance of Louis Mackerley
Disappearance of Louis Mackerley
Louis Anthony Mackerley (February 15, 1977 -- disappeared June 7, 1984) was a seven-year-old American boy who disappeared on the evening of June 7, 1984, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, after leaving his home to walk to a friend's house nearby.[1] Louis was one of the first missing children to be featured on milk cartons and billboards, and he is thought to be the victim of a non-family abduction.[2]
Early Life
Louis Mackerley was born on February 15, 1977, near Stanhope, New Jersey, the second of four children born to Harold and Shiela Mackerley. The family relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania in June 1983, a year before Louis's disappearance.[1] His family lived in a highly-populated urban area consisting of many row homes.[3]
Louis was described as friendly and talkative, but timid.[4] He had been prescribed Ritalin for symptoms related to memory and attention.[1] He was a first-grade student at Central Elementary School.[5]
In January of 1984, six months before his disappearance, Louis reported to a school nurse and to his parents that he had been molested by a couple named Frank and Elizabeth. The Mackerleys brought Louis to the police to relay his story. Louis reported that the couple had molested him on the railroad tracks near Gordon Street and the Lehigh River, and, possibly in a separate incident, that they had driven him to their apartment and molested him there before driving him back to his neighborhood. Louis also stated that the couple had threatened to hurt him if he told anyone about the abuse. Police did not have enough evidence to investigate the claims, and it is unknown whether the incidents are related to Louis's disappearance.[1]
Disappearance
On June 7, 1984, Louis returned home from school and told his aunt, who was babysitting, that he was going to walk to a friend's house, two doors down. Louis's mother was in the hospital at the time, undergoing a surgery. Louis's parents believe he was likely planning to visit the home of an elderly neighbor who he visited often.[4]
The owner of a local hot dog shop reported that Louis came into the shop around 4:00 that afternoon to keep away from two of boys who had been teasing him, and that he left after about 45 minutes and continued east down Gordon Street. Police later verified that the boys were not involved in Louis's disappearance.[1] Another witness, who lived in the neighborhood and knew Louis, reported seeing Louis with an unidentified man and woman near Jordan Creek.[1]
At the time of his disappearance, Louis was wearing a maroon and green striped shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes, pink socks, and a belt with a train buckle.[6] He was missing four front teeth.[7]
Investigation
Louis's family reported him missing at 11:10 on the night of June 7.[4] Police initially focused the investigation on Louis's parents, but ultimately concluded that Louis had been abducted by someone outside the family.[8] Multiple sightings of Louis were reported in the years after his disappearance, but none were confirmed to be Louis. One boy was picked up four separate times by police, but was determined not to be Louis when the boy's father showed police a birth certificate. Another possible sighting in New Jersey turned out to be Louis's cousin.[2] In another instance, police brought Louis's mother to observe a Pottsville boy at his school, but she determined that he was not Louis.[2]
Louis was one of the first missing children to be featured on milk cartons and billboards,[2] and his photo was printed on paper bags used in grocery stores nationwide.[9] His case was reopened in 1990 and in 2004,[2] but remains unsolved.
David R. Riggs
In December 1984, David R. Riggs, a New York City resident claiming to be a private investigator, started an organization called Search 7 with the goal of finding children who'd been abducted by strangers. Riggs announced that the organization's first case would be Louis Mackerley's.[10] Riggs claimed expertise in child abduction cases based on his graduate degree in sociology and his work with runaway children in New York City. He theorized that Louis had been abducted "for financial reasons."[10]
In 1988, Riggs was arrested in West Virginia after he approached five boys and offered to pay them to take photos in bikini bottoms. Investigators discovered that his organization had never been registered as a non-profit, and he did not have a private investigator's license. Riggs pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted child abduction and one count of sexual abuse for the West Virginia incident. Police investigated the possibility that he was connected to Mackerley's disappearance but concluded that he was not a suspect.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Louis Anthony Mackerley – The Charley Project". Retrieved 2020-02-03.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Call, Angela Pomponio Of The Morning. "Still waiting ** Parents of Louis Mackerley, who disappeared 20 years ago today, say they will never give up hope that he'll come home". mcall.com. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
- ↑ "EPISODE 27: LOUIS MACKERLEY". The Vanished Podcast. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Louis Mackerley". Missing Children Wiki. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
- ↑ "244DMPA - Louis Anthony Mackerley". www.doenetwork.org. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
- ↑ Allentown Police. "COLD CASE INVESTIGATION" (PDF). Retrieved February 3, 2020. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)". NamUs.gov. Retrieved 2020-02-03. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ News, 69. "30 years later, search still open for missing Allentown boy". WFMZ.com. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
- ↑ Call, The Morning. "MISSING BOY TO BE PICTURED ON PAPER BAGS". mcall.com. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Blangger, Tim (December 29, 1984). "N.Y. INVESTIGATOR JOINS SEARCH FOR LOUIS MACKERLEY STARTS ORGANIZATION TO FIND MISSING CHILDREN". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2020-02-04. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
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