FL FL - Peggy Rahn, 9, & Wendy Stevenson, 8, Pompano Beach, 29 Dec 1969

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Serial Killer Gerald Stano ever been investigated for the girls' disappearance? He started operating in FL from 60's until early 80s, I believe.
 
PRahn1.jpg


Name: Peggy Rahn
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: December 29, 1969
Location Last Seen: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida

Physical Description
Date of Birth: October 21, 1960
Age: 9 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 4'4"
Weight: 67 lbs.
Hair Color: Blond/Strawberry
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Freckles, small scar under right eye and birthmark on right knee.

Identifiers
Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: pink baby doll bikini
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Peggy Rahn and her friend Wendy Stevenson (NamUs MP # 6692) vanished from Pompano Beach on December 29, 1969. The two girls had gone to the beach and had found each other at the water's edge. Around 1:00 p.m., after playing together, the girls asked for money to buy ice cream. They were last seen on the beach parking lot headed for the ice cream stand.

The first promising lead came about 12 hours after their disappearances. A store clerk at a 7-Eleven less than two miles from the beach where Rahn and Stevenson disappeared saw two little girls enter the store with a man around midnight. As the man shopped, the girls both in bathing suits waited nearby. The clerk gave police a description of the man they were with - he was white, in his 20's, about 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, with sand-colored hair, gray eyes and a bump on his nose. He drove a 1967 metallic blue Chevrolet. A few weeks later, the car was spotted heading north near Soperton, GA, but by the time police were able to respond, it was too late.

There have been many reported sightings of the girls. A caller reported seeing two girls matching Rahn and Stevenson's descriptions in a Riviera Beach camera shop on January 2nd. However, police failed to turn up any evidence substantiating the report. Ten days after the disappearances, a young girl stopped a Georgia police officer and asked him to take her home. Authorities were sure it was Rahn but a man convinced the officer to let her go.

A Pompano Beach construction company voluntarily tore up a seawall in the remote possibility that the two girls were buried underneath. The construction company tore up about 25 feet of the "groin," a wall extending from the beach out into the water designed to prevent erosion of the shore line. The wall was under construction at the time the children vanished.

In February 1970, authorities checked the notebook of Kenneth Guy Shilts, who was arrested on child molestation charges in an effort to determine whether he was wanted on sex charges elsewhere. Shilts carried a notebook indicating "how far sexually" he had gone with more than 50 girls throughout the southern half of the United States. Among the listings were "Peggy and Wendy - Pompano Beach". Additionally, papers found in Shilts' possession indicated he may have known about the girl's disappearances. Most of the girl's names in the notebook were from Florida or California, with some states in between with the notebook apparently covering a period of two to three years.

Gerard John Schaefer, Jr. was convicted of two murders in the 1970s but is believed to be responsible for the murders and disappearances of many other girls and young women in the 1960s and 1970s. Rahn and Stevenson vanished after being seen with a man fitting Schaefer's description. Schaefer denied being involved when he was publicly accused of the crime, but in a 1989 letter he boasted of killing and cannibalizing the two children. Schaefer was murdered in prison in 1995.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Broward County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Detective Chris Blankenship
Agency Phone Number: 954-493-8477
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: PB69-915468
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs Case Number: 4639

Information Source(s)
Doe Network
NamUs
NCMEC
Ocala Star-Banner
Facebook
Crime TV
Daytona Beach Morning Journal
Red Orbit
Times Daily
CUE Center for Missing Persons
Sarasota Herald - Tribune - 1/28/1970 , 9/6/1974

LINK:

2241DFFL - Peggy Rahn
 
WBStevenson.jpg

Name: Wendy Brown Stevenson
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: December 29, 1969
Location Last Seen: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida

Physical Description
Date of Birth: June 20, 1961
Age: 8 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 4'2"
Weight: 61 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Small mole at the center of neck and a large appendectomy scar on abdomen.

Identifiers
Dentals: Not Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: blue and white checkered bikini
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Wendy Stevenson and her friend, Peggy Rahn (NamUs MP # 4639) vanished from Pompano Beach on December 29, 1969. The two girls had gone to the beach and had found each other at the water's edge. Around 1:00 p.m., after playing together, the girls asked for money to buy ice cream. They were last seen on the beach parking lot headed for the ice cream stand.

The first promising lead came about 12 hours after their disappearances. A store clerk at a 7-Eleven less than two miles from the beach where Rahn and Stevenson disappeared, saw two little girls enter the store with a man around midnight. As the man shopped, the girls both in bathing suits, waited nearby. The clerk gave police a description of the man they were with - he was white, in his 20's, about 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, with sand-colored hair, gray eyes and a hump on his nose. He also drove a 1967 metallic blue Chevrolet. A few weeks later, the car was spotted heading north near Soperton, GA, but by the time police were able to respond, it was too late.

There have been many reported sightings of the girls. A caller reported seeing two girls matching Rahn's and Stevenson's descriptions in a Riviera Beach camera shop on January 2nd. However, police failed to turn up any evidence substantiating the report. Ten days after the disappearances, a young girl stopped a Georgia police officer and asked him to take her home. Authorities were sure it was Rahn but a man convinced the officer to let her go.

A Pompano Beach construction company voluntarily tore up a seawall in the remote possibility that the two girls were buried underneath. The construction tore up about 25 feet of the "groin," a wall extending from the beach out into the water designed to prevent erosion of the shore line. The wall was under construction at the time the children vanished.

In Februrary 1970, authorities checked the notebook of Kenneth Guy Shilts, who was arrested on child molestation charges in an effort to determine whether he was wanted on sex charges elsewhere. Shilts carried a notebook indicating "how far sexually" he had gone with more than 50 girls throughout the southern half of the United States. Among the listings were "Peggy and Wendy- Pompano Beach". Additionally, papers found in Shilts' possession indicated he may have known about the girl's disappearances. Most of the girl's names in the notebook were from Florida or California, with some states in between with the notebook apparently covering a period of two to three years.

Gerard John Schaefer, Jr. was convicted of two murders in the 1970s but is believed to be responsible for the murders and disappearances of many other girls and young women in the 1960s and 1970s. Rahn and Stevenson vanished after being seen with a man fitting Schaefer's description. Schaefer denied being involved when he was publicly accused of the crime, but in a 1989 letter he boasted of killing and cannibalizing the two children. Schaefer was murdered in prison in 1995.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Broward County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Detective Chris Blankenship
Agency Phone Number: (954) 321-4244
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: PB69-915468
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs Case Number: 6692

Information Source(s)
Doe Network
NamUs
NCMEC
Ocala Star-Banner
Facebook
Crime TV
Daytona Beach Morning Journal
Red Orbit
Times Daily
CUE Center for Missing Persons
Sarasota Herald - Tribune - 1/28/1970 , 9/6/1974

LINK:

2242DFFL - Wendy Brown Stevenson
 
Ozoner said:
I don't know whether I believe Schaefer's confession. Is there any additional information available about Kenneth Guy Shilts?
Re-posting the newspaper link:
St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search
Click to expand...

You know Ozoner, I have to say iam with you on this one. Who is this Kenneth Guy Shilts?? I felt the same way.. this guy was a drifter was arrested for molesting other little girls and had a notebook with a bunch of little girls names and what he did with them.. sounds creepy. what ever became of this man? I found this link which gives a little more information.
Desert Sun 13 February 1970 — California Digital Newspaper Collection
 
Last edited:
This case is over 50 years old...

Wendy Brown Stevenson
  • wendy_brown_stevenson_1.jpg
  • wendy_brown_stevenson_2.jpg
  • wendy_brown_stevenson_5.jpg
  • wendy_brown_stevenson_6.jpg
Wendy, circa 1969; Gerald Schaefer; Kenneth Shilts

  • Missing Since 12/29/1969
  • Missing From Pompano Beach, Florida
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 06/20/1961 (58)
  • Age 8 years old
  • Height and Weight 4'2, 61 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue and white checkered bikini.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Wendy has a six-inch appendectomy scar on her abdomen, four large freckles on the lower left side of her chin and a small mole on the center of her neck. Her first name may be spelled "Windy."
Details of Disappearance

Wendy and a friend, Peggy Rahn, were last seen in Pompano Beach, Florida on December 29, 1969. They had gone to the beach separately; a family friend took Peggy and Wendy went with her uncle. The girls met at the beach by chance and began playing together. They both attended Palmview Elementary School and had mutual friends, but they didn't know each other well prior to that day.

At 1:00 p.m., Peggy and Wendy decided to walk to the parking lot to buy ice cream. A convenience store clerk reported seeing a man buying ice cream cones for Peggy and Wendy. He identified the girls from photographs.

The clerk described their companion as a Caucasian man, 25 to 30 years old, about six feet tall and 190 to 200 pounds, with sandy-colored hair, gray/blue eyes, a two-inch scar on the back of his right hand between his thumb and first finger, and a humped nose. He was wearing a red turtleneck, blue dungaree pants, and a gray pinstriped sports coat, and drove a metallic blue 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet with a black vinyl top and wire wheel covers. Peggy and Wendy have never been heard from again.

Authorities initially suspected both girls had drowned. However, nobody saw them in distress in the water that day, their bodies were not recovered, and Wendy was known to be a good swimmer. The drowning theory was eventually discarded as implausible. The man who took Peggy to the beach was questioned as a possible suspect. He cooperated with the investigation, passed a polygraph, and was cleared.

One suspect in the girls' cases was Kenneth Guy Shilts, a serial child molester who was arrested in Alabama six weeks after Peggy and Wendy vanished. He kept a coded notebook apparently recording his crimes, and there was an entry that said "Peggy and Wendy - Pompano Beach."

Shilts admitted having been in central Florida around the time the girls went missing, but denied having had anything to do with their disappearances. Authorities were never able to prove his involvement. He died in 1991. A photo of him is posted with this case summary.

The serial killer Gerard John Schaefer Jr. is another suspect in the children's disappearances. A photograph of him is posted with this case summary. Schaefer is a suspect in the deaths and disappearances of dozens of girls and young women, including Nancy Leichner, Pamela Nater and Carmen Hallock. The family of Debora Lowe, who disappeared in 1972, believes he was involved in her case as well.

Schaefer was only convicted of two murders. Prosecutors publicly accused him of killing Peggy and Wendy in 1973. He denied it at that time, but in 1989 he wrote a letter and confessed to murdering the girls. He was never charged in their cases, however, and was himself murdered in prison in 1995.

Wendy and Peggy have never been found.

Investigating Agency
  • Broward County Sheriff's Office 954-493-8477
Source Information
 
Peggy C. Rahn
  • rahn_peggy.png
  • rahn_peggy2.jpg
  • peggy_rahn_3.jpg
  • peggy_rahn_6.jpg
  • peggy_rahn_7.jpg
Peggy, circa 1969; Gerald Schaefer; Kenneth Shilts

  • Missing Since 12/29/1969
  • Missing From Pompano Beach, Florida
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 10/21/1960 (59)
  • Age 9 years old
  • Height and Weight 4'4, 67 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink baby doll bikini bathing suit with fringe.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Peggy has a small scar near her right eye and a birthmark on the back of her her right knee. She has freckles on her nose and cheeks. Her two lower eyeteeth are missing. She has between four and six warts on her hands, including one on the back of her right hand between her first and second finger, and one on the inside of her left palm. Her hair was shoulder-length at the time of her disappearance.
Details of Disappearance

Peggy and a friend, Wendy Stevenson, were last seen in Pompano Beach, Florida on December 29, 1969. They had gone to the beach separately; a family friend took Peggy and Wendy went with her uncle. The girls met at the beach by chance and began playing together. They both attended Palmview Elementary School and had mutual friends, but they didn't know each other well prior to that day.

At 1:00 p.m., Peggy and Wendy decided to walk to the parking lot to buy ice cream. A convenience store clerk reported seeing a man buying ice cream cones for Peggy and Wendy and cigarettes for himself. He identified the girls from photographs.

The clerk described their companion as a Caucasian man, 25 to 30 years old, about six feet tall and 190 to 200 pounds, with sandy blond hair, blue/gray eyes, a two-inch scar on the back of his right hand between his thumb and first finger, and a humped nose. He was wearing a red turtleneck, blue dungaree pants, and a gray pinstriped sports coat, and drove a metallic blue 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet with a black vinyl top and wire wheel covers. Peggy and Wendy have never been heard from again.

Authorities initially suspected both girls had drowned. However, nobody saw them in distress in the water that day, their bodies were not recovered, and Wendy was known to be a good swimmer. The drowning theory was eventually discarded as implausible. The man who took Peggy to the beach was questioned as a possible suspect. He cooperated with the investigation, passed a polygraph, and was cleared.

One suspect in the girls' cases was Kenneth Guy Shilts, a serial child molester who was arrested in Alabama six weeks after Peggy and Wendy vanished. He kept a coded notebook apparently recording his crimes, and there was an entry that said "Peggy and Wendy - Pompano Beach."

Shilts admitted having been in central Florida around the time the girls went missing, but denied having had anything to do with their disappearances. Authorities were never able to prove his involvement. He died in 1991. A photo of Shilts is posted below with case summary.

The serial killer Gerard John Schaefer Jr. is another suspect in the children's disappearances. A photograph of him is posted with this case summary. Schaefer is a suspect in the deaths and disappearances of dozens of girls and young women, including Nancy Leichner, Pamela Nater and Carmen Hallock. The family of Debora Lowe, who disappeared in 1972, believes he was involved in her case as well.

Schaefer was only convicted of two murders. Prosecutors publicly accused him of killing Peggy and Wendy in 1973. He denied it at that time, but in 1989 he wrote a letter and confessed to murdering the girls. He was never charged in their cases, however, and was himself murdered in prison in 1995.

Wendy and Peggy's bodies have never been located.

Investigating Agency
  • Broward County Sheriff's Office 954-493-8477
Source Information
 
flying.sleuth said:
Peggy Rahns' DNA is in CODIS. Wendy Stevensons' DNA is not anywhere.

:banghead:

Her mother would not submit any DNA.
Before anyone makes a comment, remember, Mrs. Stevenson is a victim. I am sure she has her reasons.
This development makes it more about Peggy Rahn. Because I have something to work with.
I am concentrating on partials and young females 11-20 years old in Florida. Once I have exhausted that avenue, I will expand to the neighboring states.
Click to expand...


I know it’s been many many years, but are you still investigating this disappearance?
 
Does anyone know if Kenneth Shilts (or Gerard Schaefer) fit this description? This is from a 2020 article be Jenn Baxter on Medium:

Vanished at the Beach: Where are Peggy & Wendy?​

Betty Fischer, a clerk at a convenience store not too far from the beach, had been working a night shift that Monday when the girls went missing, and sometime around midnight a male customer entered the store with two young girls. He had purchased cigarettes for himself and ice cream for the two girls. It seemed to be a routine transaction, and the girls hadn’t seemed to be at all nervous. The only reason Betty remembered them at all was because the girls had both been clad only in bathing suits despite the fact that the night air was quite chilly. The next morning, Betty heard someone mention that two girls had gone missing the previous day and she immediately called the police to report what she had seen. An officer was sent over with pictures to see if Betty would be able to identify the girls that she had seen.

When Betty was shown pictures of the girls, she realized that she had indeed seen the two girls that were missing, and she immediately burst into tears. There was no way she could have known, and the girls had seemed to be perfectly calm, but she was inconsolable. If only she had known sooner, she never would have let them leave the store. All she could do now was give the police a description of the man the girls had been seen with and hope that it would help detectives find the two girls. She said he was a white male, around 25–30 years old, with sandy hair and blue-gray eyes. He had been about six feet tall and maybe 200 pounds, and she had noticed that he had two-inch scar running along the back of his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. He and the girls had driven off in a 1966 or 1967 metallic blue Chevrolet with a black top and wire wheel covers. She gave police so many details that they believed she was embellishing, perhaps to alleviate the guilt she felt for not realizing the girls had been abducted. The detectives actually asked her if she would be willing to take a lie detector test, and she agreed. The test results indicated that she was telling the truth, but police still seemed uncertain as to whether or not the girls she had seen were actually Peggy and Wendy. They had gone missing around 1:00pm. It seemed unlikely that someone who abducted them would be bold enough to remain in the same area with them almost 12 hours later, but they also knew criminals could be not counted on to behave in rational ways.
medium.com

Vanished at the Beach: Where are Peggy & Wendy?

The disappearance of two little girls has haunted the Sunshine State for more than 50 years.
medium.com medium.com
 
Green_Turtle said:
Does anyone know if Kenneth Shilts (or Gerard Schaefer) fit this description? This is from a 2020 article be Jenn Baxter on Medium:

Vanished at the Beach: Where are Peggy & Wendy?​

Betty Fischer, a clerk at a convenience store not too far from the beach, had been working a night shift that Monday when the girls went missing, and sometime around midnight a male customer entered the store with two young girls. He had purchased cigarettes for himself and ice cream for the two girls. It seemed to be a routine transaction, and the girls hadn’t seemed to be at all nervous. The only reason Betty remembered them at all was because the girls had both been clad only in bathing suits despite the fact that the night air was quite chilly. The next morning, Betty heard someone mention that two girls had gone missing the previous day and she immediately called the police to report what she had seen. An officer was sent over with pictures to see if Betty would be able to identify the girls that she had seen.

When Betty was shown pictures of the girls, she realized that she had indeed seen the two girls that were missing, and she immediately burst into tears. There was no way she could have known, and the girls had seemed to be perfectly calm, but she was inconsolable. If only she had known sooner, she never would have let them leave the store. All she could do now was give the police a description of the man the girls had been seen with and hope that it would help detectives find the two girls. She said he was a white male, around 25–30 years old, with sandy hair and blue-gray eyes. He had been about six feet tall and maybe 200 pounds, and she had noticed that he had two-inch scar running along the back of his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. He and the girls had driven off in a 1966 or 1967 metallic blue Chevrolet with a black top and wire wheel covers. She gave police so many details that they believed she was embellishing, perhaps to alleviate the guilt she felt for not realizing the girls had been abducted. The detectives actually asked her if she would be willing to take a lie detector test, and she agreed. The test results indicated that she was telling the truth, but police still seemed uncertain as to whether or not the girls she had seen were actually Peggy and Wendy. They had gone missing around 1:00pm. It seemed unlikely that someone who abducted them would be bold enough to remain in the same area with them almost 12 hours later, but they also knew criminals could be not counted on to behave in rational ways.
medium.com

Vanished at the Beach: Where are Peggy & Wendy?

The disappearance of two little girls has haunted the Sunshine State for more than 50 years.
medium.com medium.com
Click to expand...
I think there's a good chance that either Shilts or Schaefer did this, but I'm not sure we'll ever know for certain.
 
I’m leaning hard toward Shilts but it’s difficult to find much info at all on him. Pretty sure Florida detectives interviewed him in early 1970 when he was arrested in Alabama for molesting a little child. Then … nothing.

The big hooked scar on his hand: there must be a way to find out if Shilts had this.

And does anyone have physical stats on Gerard Schaefer? One source said the clerk’s description of the man she saw was “markedly different” to Schaefer but didn’t go into specifics.
 
Last edited:
If that notebook entry is true, I am 95% sure it is Shilts. Could almost say 100%, but sometimes serial killers and child molesters are known to throw off LE by saying names of children gone missing when they had nothing to do with the crime to throw off LE.

From the witness descriptions, they describe. KS more than GS.

Satch
 
Satch said:
If that notebook entry is true, I am 95% sure it is Shilts. Could almost say 100%, but sometimes serial killers and child molesters are known to throw off LE by saying names of children gone missing when they had nothing to do with the crime to throw off LE.

From the witness descriptions, they describe. KS more than GS.

Satch
Click to expand...

Overall I lean towards Shilts. The notebook makes Shilts seem like the obvious perp. The only thing that gives me pause is that Shilts was 42, and the witness described a 25–30-year-old man. GS was 23 (almost 24), but he didn't look anything like the man described by the witness. (Shilts did, aside from his age.)

I don't doubt that GS was capable of making false confessions in order to inflate his body count.
 
Ozoner said:
Overall I lean towards Shilts. The notebook makes Shilts seem like the obvious perp. The only thing that gives me pause is that Shilts was 42, and the witness described a 25–30-year-old man. GS was 23 (almost 24), but he didn't look anything like the man described by the witness. (Shilts did, aside from his age.)

I don't doubt that GS was capable of making false confessions in order to inflate his body count.
Click to expand...
Is Shilts still alive?

Satch
 
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