20 YEARS LATER, WINDBER TEEN’S FATE STILL A MYSTERY
Tribune Democrat
By: Patrick Buchnowski Dated: May 6, 2007
On April 26, 1987, Alicia Markovich left her Windber home to visit her father in Blairsville.
The 15-year-old Windber Area High School student was to spend the day with her dad, who planned to drive her back home that evening.
But as the two discussed grades and her friends, the conversation became heated.
The bright and energetic track athlete stormed out of the house.
“She didn’t want to hear it,” John Markovich said at the time. “She left in a huff.”
She hasn’t been seen since.
Authorities were notified when she failed to return. Now, 20 years later, police are no closer to solving her disappearance than they were back then. The search for a runaway has turned into a homicide investigation, although investigators are unsure whether the girl was murdered.
“We don’t close out these cases,” said Cpl. Kirt Allmendinger of the state police at Indiana.
“It’s been assigned to different troopers though the years. We need a lead right now. We have nothing to help us out.”
Markovich is among thousands of children reported missing each year. In one year alone, 797,500 children younger than 18 were reported missing, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington. Nearly 2,200 children go missing each day.
State police have been working closely with the missing children’s organization, but Allmendinger said new leads are scarce.
The 2-inch-thick case file is filled with lab reports, letters and police information.
Alicia’s Social Security number and checkbook haven’t been used, meaning no one has stolen her identity. Investigators believe that, if she were a runaway, the woman would have surfaced by now.
Authorities thought they caught a break when John Markovich received a letter in 2000 saying Alicia had been murdered and describing where her body could be found.
But when investigators searched an area near a bridge on Route 220 near the Indiana-Westmoreland County line, they found nothing. After tracing the return address, authorities concluded the letter was a hoax.
“We don’t believe those people (at the return address) sent the letter,” Allmendinger said.
The passing of the years has not made it easier for Alicia’s family, who continue to hope for her safe return.
“We cherish her memory,” said her grandfather, John Markovich of Windber.
“We’re still hoping she will return.”
