AZ AZ - Cynthia, 15, & Jackie Leslie, 13, Mesa, 31 July 1974

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Cynthia Ardina Leslie
Missing since July 31, 1974 from Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction



Vital Statistics Date Of Birth: February 1, 1959
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'6; 110 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; hazel eyes.
Marks, Scars: Dark brown mole on the outer side of her right armpit. She wears eyeglasses and is unable to see without them. Pierced ears.
Clothing: Light blue jeans, summer shirt.
Dentals: Available
Nickname: Cindy

Agency Case Number: 7410415
NCIC Number: M-041124474

Jackie Lynn Leslie
Missing since July 31, 1974 from Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: February 15, 1961
Age at Time of Disappearance: 13 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4; 110 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; blue eyes.
Marks, Scars: Mole on her right cheekbone. Pierced ears.
Clothing: Jeans and a summer shirt.
Dentals: Available
Agency Case Number: 74-10415
NCIC Number: M-041124576


Circumstances of Disappearance
Cynthia was last seen walking with her younger sister, Jackie, on July 31, 1974. They were headed to a friend's home, which was located three blocks away from their own residence in the Desert Sands Mobile Home Park in east Mesa. They had just moved there a month earlier from Page, Arizona, so that their father, who was suffering from terminal cancer, could be closer to the hospital. Both girls were last seen walking on Baseline Road near Power Road. They told their mother that they were scheduled to babysit, but she learned afterwards that they planned to attend a party. Cindy likely was meeting a boy her father had forbidden her to see. Teenagers who attended the party were questioned more than once. Stories conflicted. One teenager said the sisters did show up at the party; others said they didn't. Neither Cynthia nor her sister have been heard from since.
In the weeks following the girls' disappearance, family members and sheriff's deputies searched orange groves and cotton fields. These fields have since been replaced by subdivisions, apartments, theaters and stores.


If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Detective Bob Powers 602-256-1087

Source Information:
The Doenetwork
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
Nation's Missing Children Organization and Center For Missing Adults
The Arizona Republic
 
This is a case which is somewhat rare in that two sisters were apparently abducted at the same time. In some ways it is similar to the disappearance of the Fort Worth, TX three who went missing five months later (Dec 74), and with the disappearance of the Lyon Sisters from Wheaton, MD three months after that (Mar 75). There are also other double abductions from that time frame which may or may not be connected.

Was this a crime of opportunity by someone passing through, or was it a crime perpetrated by someone who knew the girls? Does anyone have any more information on the case?
 
Those teens should be middle aged by now, and most likely married with kids of their own. I only hope that if the do know something, that having their own families will make them come forward with the information.
 
Bumping case up.

I wonder if a list of party attendees was made, and if any of those people have been in trouble with legal authorities in a manner which might make their 1974 statements about these girls appear suspect today.
 
It has been 35 years since the disappearance of the Leslie sisters. The case is still unsolved.
 
Teenagers who attended the party were questioned more than once. Stories conflicted. One teenager said the sisters did show up at the party; others said they didn't.

I wonder if a friend was possibly trying to cover for them? Or was this just such a huge party that some friends didn't notice if they were there? That seems kind of unlikely, IMO, but I guess it's always possible...
 
Ted Bundy was pretty active at this time and he was transient. He killed women in several different states.
 
Circumstances of Disappearance

Cynthia Leslie was last seen walking with her younger sister, Jackie, on July 31, 1974.

They were headed to a friend's home, which was located three blocks away from their own residence in the Desert Sands Mobile Home Park in east Mesa.

They had just moved there a month earlier from Page, Arizona, so that their father, who was suffering from terminal cancer, could be closer to the hospital.

Both girls were last seen walking on Baseline Road near Power Road. They told their mother that they were scheduled to babysit, but she learned afterwards that they planned to attend a party.

Cindy likely was meeting a boy her father had forbidden her to see. Teenagers who attended the party were questioned more than once. Stories conflicted. One teenager said the sisters did show up at the party; others said they didn't. Neither Cynthia nor her sister have been heard from since.

In the weeks following the girls' disappearance, family members and sheriff's deputies searched orange groves and cotton fields. These fields have since been replaced by subdivisions, apartments, theaters and stores.


Link to The Doe Network: Case File 94DFAZ (Cynthia Leslie):
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/94dfaz.html

Link to The Doe Network: Case File 95DFAZ (Jackie Leslie):
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/95dfaz.html
 
Could the answer have been something like the girls were walking out of the trailer park and someone called them over to their trailer? Does the evidence show these girls actually left the trailer park? Where were they last seen walking? Within the trailer park or outside of it?
 
Recently in my state, a dead baby was found underneath a mobile home/trailer. Checking further, police found two more babies behind the trailer, dead several years apart. This is in a trailer park and the neighbors have no idea what to make of it. The place has been rented out to several people over the years. This got me to thinking; has the trailer park where the Leslie sisters were last seen been closely looked at? I mean REALLY looked at?
 
Sisters Jackie Leslie, 13, and Cynthia Leslie, 15, disappeared within a three-block area while walking along Baseline Road near Power Road from their east Mesa home on July 31, 1974. They were on their way to a party.

“There’s never a day that I don’t say a prayer where I’ll find out what happened to my daughters,” said Erma Prue, 78, who now lives in Henderson, Nev., to be close to her oldest daughter, her only other child. “You never give up hope.”

In a recent interview with the Tribune, Prue said she doesn’t believe the girls would have abandoned their family, especially given their father’s medical condition at the time. Albert Jack Leslie died of cancer on Feb. 21, 1975, about seven months after the girls disappeared.

Authorities, Erma Prue and her daughter, Linda Herring, believe Jackie and Cynthia met with foul play somewhere between their home and their destination.

“I’ve tried to keep the story of their disappearance alive so nobody forgets about it,” Prue said. “I think there is someone out there who knows what happened to them and never came forward.”

There were conflicting statements as to whether the sisters attended the party.

Some people questioned by police said they did; others said they stopped by briefly and left.

“I believe they got in with the wrong crowd,” Prue said.

Herring said that after her sisters disappeared none of the people who often called Cynthia and Jackie on the phone ever called the house again.

“I thought that was strange,” Herring said. “We believe something happened to them ... and we hope that someone who knows what happened will say something.”

The sisters’ disappearance was in an unincorporated area of east Mesa at that time under the county’s jurisdiction.

Although no remains were ever found, the case is considered a homicide because of outstanding suspicious circumstances.

Many people were questioned, but no one was ever a suspect, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Steve Gurlach, who has investigated leads in the case for several years.

The most recent tip received by the sheriff’s office came from out of state in February 2009, and actually led to the excavation of a backyard of a Cottonwood home last summer, according to Gurlach.

However, the excavation turned up nothing.

“Two healthy teenage girls just don’t disappear and aren’t heard from again,” Gurlach said. “Something happened, and there’s a great fear that they met with foul play. ... Somebody somewhere knows something.”

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/153084
 
Very reminiscent of my sister's disappearance along with her friend in Marathon, Fla! They disappeared in either 8/74 or 9/74, the date is debatable. My sister was named "Cynthis" too! Wow! My heart goes out to this family! My sister and Teri's thread is on here too. Cynthis Gooding and Teresa Alfonso. I pray for answers like I know this family does.
 
Was the boyfriend that the terminally ill father had forbidden his daughter to see, questioned? I wonder what his responses and reactions were?

Satch
 

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