FL FL - Monica Libao, may have been abducted as infant, 1963-64

[Laura_Bean]

This was shown on Unsolved Mysteries. I have a potential theory she may be Lori Mae Puegeot, a little girl and her mother who were abducted in 1969, (Lori was 2). The man claimed he killed them both in jail, but with no bodies, and the fact a judge felt his right to a speedy trial was violated, he was never convicted of killing either of them. He did however go to jail for other crimes, and killed himself in 1978 while in jail serving a life term. Some people believe Lori Mae was killed as he claimed, while others believe he may have given the little girl to a friend, sold her to someone, or dumped her somewhere alive. We just don't know.

Monica has many reasons to believe she may have been abducted or sold. Her supposed mother she found out had a hysterectomy in 1945, at least 15 yrs before Monica was born. Her mother told her that her half sister was her real bio mom, but upon questioning her sister denied this ever happened. Monica could remember hearing her mom and dad fighting and talking about police searching for a baby, roads being blocked off, hiding a baby in a box at a bar, etc. They moved every six months or so. Her parents always kept her home on school picture day.

One day her half sister and mother were with Monica at a family gathering and Monica asked again who her real mother was. Her sister yelled at her mom telling her she had already lied for her TO the police and would not lie for her again and said, "I NEVER GAVE BIRTH TO THIS CHILD AND YOU KNOW IT!!!"

I think the photos of these children are so close they need to be checked out by Monica to see if she thinks they could be her as a child.

 

[CarlK90245]

I wonder if Monica's DNA profile has been entered in CODIS. I believe that Lori was excluded as a possible for Sharon Marshall based on mtDNA. Not positive, but if they have mtDNA profiles for Linda Mae and Lori Mae Peugeot, then they are probably in CODIS.

 

[Cubby]

Just wanted to let others know that although Ms. Libao had a private DNA test done which ruled out two possibilities her details and DNA had never been entered into CODIS. She has been given all the information she needs to have that done.

She will update me as to how things are going, when she does I will update it here as well.

Regards,
Maz

According to this post, Monica's DNA is in not Codis. I wonder if it will be.

 

[Cubby]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Ms. Libao is still waiting to hear back from CODIS.

She is still hopeful that her case will be solved. If I hear any more I will update it here.

Maz

Another post regarding Codis. I don't know if this means she is waiting for her DNA to be entered into Codis or ??

 

[Laura_Bean]

So here is what I know. She is in the process of being put into codis. She has had a DNA test and proved she is not related to anyone in her "Family". There are no pictures of her at all until she about 4 or 5 yrs old. The last place she knows that her family was living was Florida at the time of her abduction. This should be a good beginning.

 

[Cubby]

I think Monica might be too old to be Lori. What year did Monica graduate HS? What year did she begin school? Did she begin in kindergarten or 1st? Not all states require kindergarten which is why I ask. That might help with a better idea of her age.

thanks

 

[Cubby]

Here is a site Monica might want to consider. This is Colleen Fitzpatricks site,she is a forensic genealogist and does the genealogy dna stuff. Interesting and brilliant lady. Monica might want to check out her site. It could help.......

http://www.identifinders.com/

 

[Laura_Bean]

She has told me she may very well have been lied to reguarding her age. Even LE has told her she could be 3 to 4 yrs older or younger than what she was told. Which makes this much more difficult.

 

[Laura_Bean]

I will let her know that thank u

 

[Cubby]

Even if her age is off.....how would that work with school. It would be hard to pass 5th grade if one was 3-4 years younger than what they were told. On the other hand, it would be hard to pass someone 10 years old off as a 1st grader.

Also if someone talked about a baby in a box, it would be awfully hard to keep even 12-18 mo old in a box... they would likely cause some kind of commotion trying to get up or get out of the box. I'm thinking along the lines of 12 months for walking.

ETA: I just think her parents got her as an infant or close to an infant..

 

[Laura_Bean]

She never says a "baby in a box" they were talking about hiding items from law enforcement under the bar, or at least after watching Unsolved Mysteries that is what they said. And the first photos of Monica were taken when she was around probably 3-5 yrs of age. No baby pictures. Which make me very sure that she was between 3 and 5when they got her. Once she was a bit older, her parents could have claimed she was just about any age. They could have said, "She is 5" when she was 7, or "She is 3" when in actuality she was 5. In this scenario. she would have been born in '67 or '66. Meaning today she would be about 43-44 yrs old, right? Which sounds about right.

 

[Laura_Bean]

I think it is entirely possible that the man who Lori and her mother may have sold the child off for some quick cash. Perhaps he told them to hide her or she would be taken away from them. Perhaps he gave them to her but warned them not to let the cops find her.

I have a very hard time believing the story that a young girl sold her for a bus ticket. That explanation does not hold for me. It doesn't make sense.

If some young girl sold the child for a bus ticket, why the moving constantly? Why hide her on picture day? No... If a young girl sold her no one would be looking for her therefore no reason to hide her. Not to mention you wouldn't have to worry about the girl opening her mouth. She would be in huge trouble for selling her baby and would be too scared to come forward to LE and ask them to search for the child.

Also, babies are not very recognizable. So passing an infant off as your own would be easy. But passing off an older girl that LE is looking for as an abducted child, now that would keep you running all the time.

Also the photos. If they had her as a baby, there would be photos of her as a baby. 1st birthday. 1st christmas, etc. But Monica's kid pictures don't begin until she is between 3 and 5 yrs of age, but nothing before that.

 

[Cubby]

Thank you for the clarification Laura Bean. I had thought they were trying to hide Monica in a box. 2 years could be easily explainable depending on what age a child started school and if they were held back. It's likely there are 2 year age differences within the same grade.

I would still like to know what year she started kindergarten or 1st grade and what year she graduated high school with what class year she believes she should have graduated. For example, if she graduated HS in 1984 she would have likely started KG in the fall of 72 or 1st grade in the fall of 73. It would help with a time line.

 

[Donjeta]

Are there any links with her story that are current now?

It seems to me that if there's anything shady going on and if her age is off, I'd look at the older missing children first.

I think she'd be far more likely to be older than she's been told than unlikely to be younger than she's been told. If her caretakers wanted to hide her IMO they'd be more likely to put off when she started school, not get her to start school earlier. If she was taken as a baby or a toddler the older she gets the harder she would be to identify. Also, presumably some people knew her caretakers before she was part of their family and if they ever run across those people again it is always easier to say, "yeah, this baby was born a year after we met you" than to explain why they have a six-year-old now even though there was no corresponding one-year-old five years ago.

I don't know her height now but if she had been maltreated at any point of her life before or after the suspected abduction she could easily have been small for her age as a child, possibly a slow developer, and it might not have been hard to pass her off as couple years younger than she really was. If she was unusually bright and mature or tall for her alleged age it might have been noted but people wouldn't be worried and it wouldn't cause a stir at school. But a younger child who is perceived to be small for her age and constantly a couple of years behind what her supposed peers are able to do might attract unwanted attention and even get the social workers involved if her teachers are worried enough.

As children grow older it becomes increasingly difficult to tell their age by size alone as the individual differences are exaggerated. Most newborns are close to the same size give or take a couple of inches but the difference between the tallest and the shortest kid at 15 is much more. And anyway, who would start to argue with a parent who says their child is 4, or whatever, if the age given is at all plausible? It's usually taken for granted that people know how old their kids are and it's never even questioned unless they are already suspected of something.

 

[Donjeta]

I think it is entirely possible that the man who Lori and her mother may have sold the child off for some quick cash. Perhaps he told them to hide her or she would be taken away from them. Perhaps he gave them to her but warned them not to let the cops find her.

I have a very hard time believing the story that a young girl sold her for a bus ticket. That explanation does not hold for me. It doesn't make sense.

If some young girl sold the child for a bus ticket, why the moving constantly? Why hide her on picture day? No... If a young girl sold her no one would be looking for her therefore no reason to hide her. Not to mention you wouldn't have to worry about the girl opening her mouth. She would be in huge trouble for selling her baby and would be too scared to come forward to LE and ask them to search for the child.

Also, babies are not very recognizable. So passing an infant off as your own would be easy. But passing off an older girl that LE is looking for as an abducted child, now that would keep you running all the time.

Also the photos. If they had her as a baby, there would be photos of her as a baby. 1st birthday. 1st christmas, etc. But Monica's kid pictures don't begin until she is between 3 and 5 yrs of age, but nothing before that.

Does she have other photos of her family during those years? Lots of family shots in which she is conspicuously not present? Or are there no photos at all?

I suppose not everybody owns a camera all the time so if there were no photos it might be an innocent reason why.

Someone with an abducted baby might want to avoid getting her photographed during the first year or two hoping to avoid people being able to recognize her from the baby shots later. But they could still keep family photos in which the baby is present but not really recognizable, with her face turned away or in her pram, covered with a cap etc..

 

[Chicken Hawk]

I don't post often on here, but read all the time. I would be glad to look through old missing child posts in the "new" cold case area on websleuths. I've read this whole thread, but it's been a while. Does anyone have any idea of what year to start looking at? I understand we aren't exactly sure of her age but an estimation?

Also, it's interesting that her half sister said to the "mother" "I lied TO police but I'm not lying anymore, I didn't give birth to this child." Or something along those lines. So did the police question them at one point? or did I read it wrong?

I'm at work now, and can look through missing child posts in my spare time or at home. I'll check back in a little bit. I must say she does seem to resemble the Lori that you mentioned in an earlier post.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to reunite her with a family that has been looking for her for years?

 

[awagner]

I wonder if she thought about entering her DNA in the Ancestry.com geneological databse. I have been saying for years someone should try this with Unidentifieds because it might narrow it down to Family lines. The Codis database is only going to have "certain Types" of people in it and if someone doesnt actually report a person missing and enter them the DNA is only being compared to criminals basically. The DNA thing may give a family line where someone in that family may say "Hey I remember stories of .... what ever happened to her?"

I wonder if Monica's DNA profile has been entered in CODIS. I believe that Lori was excluded as a possible for Sharon Marshall based on mtDNA. Not positive, but if they have mtDNA profiles for Linda Mae and Lori Mae Peugeot, then they are probably in CODIS.

 

[Cubby]

Codis was suggested, and is in the works?

I also suggested the DNA genealogy database.

I would also like to know. How much of the Lori P thread was read? What about that case might make Monica think she might be Lori? If Codis is updated, both would have profiles so they would normally be a rule out.

Has Monica ever contacted NCMEC to discuss her possible abduction case?

 

[chaddylex]

Laura Bean,

Do you know if Monica has ever questioned any other "family members" (other than her mom and sister) like Aunts or cousins?

 

[Cubby]

This was shown on Unsolved Mysteries. I have a potential theory she may be Lori Mae Puegeot, a little girl and her mother who were abducted in 1969, (Lori was 2). The man claimed he killed them both in jail, but with no bodies, and the fact a judge felt his right to a speedy trial was violated, he was never convicted of killing either of them. He did however go to jail for other crimes, and killed himself in 1978 while in jail serving a life term. Some people believe Lori Mae was killed as he claimed, while others believe he may have given the little girl to a friend, sold her to someone, or dumped her somewhere alive. We just don't know.

Monica has many reasons to believe she may have been abducted or sold. Her supposed mother she found out had a hysterectomy in 1945, at least 15 yrs before Monica was born. Her mother told her that her half sister was her real bio mom, but upon questioning her sister denied this ever happened. Monica could remember hearing her mom and dad fighting and talking about police searching for a baby, roads being blocked off, hiding a baby in a box at a bar, etc. They moved every six months or so. Her parents always kept her home on school picture day.

One day her half sister and mother were with Monica at a family gathering and Monica asked again who her real mother was. Her sister yelled at her mom telling her she had already lied for her TO the police and would not lie for her again and said, "I NEVER GAVE BIRTH TO THIS CHILD AND YOU KNOW IT!!!"

I think the photos of these children are so close they need to be checked out by Monica to see if she thinks they could be her as a child.

My bold. "Hiding a baby in a box in a bar". I'm scratching my head here, but perhaps she was legally adopted but her parents simply did not want to give details regarding her adoption?


What does she know and what can she share about her 'adoptive' family which would be non identifying?.

I think we have a right to ask legitimate questions in cases such as Monica's... Her case has been around a long time...

Why is it still unsolved?