NC NC - Sherri Truesdale, 14, Winston-Salem, 13 June 1970

Sherri Lee Truesdale, 14, Missing 13 June 1970 from Winston-Salem, NC

Sherri Lee Truesdale
Missing since June 13, 1970 from Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: May 15, 1956
Age at Time of Disappearance: 14 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 4'2; 75 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Black female. Black hair; brown eyes.
Marks, Scars: A mole above her upper lip and a mole on the back of the base of her neck. She also has pierced ears.
Clothing: A blue shirt, blue bellbottem pants, a girls wristwatch with black leather or plastic band. Pentagon-shaped aqua blue earrings and brown loafers.

Circumstances:
Truesdale was last seen shopping at Rayless Department Store in Winston-Salem, NC on June 13, 1970. She rode the bus to the mall and planned to purchase school supplies. She has not been seen since.

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Winston-Salem Police Department 336-773-7848 Email: mailto:chiefdavis@wspd.org

NCIC Number: M-033106784

Source Information:
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
The Doe Network: Case File 75DFNC

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/75dfnc.html

Something struck me as odd...she went missing on June 13 and she was going to purchase school supplies? School had just let out. Why would she be going to buy stuff for school?

Maybe she was going to attend summer school? But it seems she should already have school supplies since school would have recently been out for the regular school year.

Paradise said:

Something struck me as odd...she went missing on June 13 and she was going to purchase school supplies? School had just let out. Why would she be going to buy stuff for school?

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maybe school supplies are cheaper that time of year?

Maybe summer school, maybe a summer program that would require notebook/pens/pencils. Did they have year-round school then? Some of the schools in our town (a few of the elementary schools) are year-round, and students attend school in summer.

This case has common elements with quite a few other disappearances of young girls. She went to a shopping mall, alone, arriving on a bus.

In a case like this, where the girl was only 14, and had a definite purpose for shopping, it would seem doubtful that she was planning to strike out on her own and run away.

It is much more likely that she was abducted, but the fact that she was downtown, had ridden a bus, etc would make it less likely that she was taken by a close relative or neighbor. Also, police did not identify any close relatives or neighbors as suspects.

It seems more like a random abduction by a pervert who was in Winston-Salem at the time. Someone could have been watching the bus stop to see what young girls were traveling alone, and then watched for her to emerge from the store. There are many similar cases. Perhaps a link could be found which would connect them to the same perpetrator.

Yaya said:

Details of Disappearance


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Truesdale left her home on Pitt Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at 11:30 a.m. on June 13, 1970 and rode the bus to the mall. Truesdale never returned to her family's residence and has not been heard from again.​

Truesdale is described as a quiet, studious girl. She had won a scholarship to attend a summer fine-arts program at Mount Tabor High School and one of the reasons she went to the mall was to buy school supplies. She also planned to buy donuts for her older sister and make payments on her mother's charge account at Rayless Department Store. She was last seen by a clerk at the department store at 4:30 p.m.​

Truesdale's parents reported her missing the day after her disappearance, when she did not come home and they spent the night searching for her without result. They thought she may have drowned in one of the creeks at Happy Hill Park, as it rained heavily that night and there was flooding. Investigators launched a six-week search of the Winston-Salem area, but turned up no sign of Truesdale.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/t/truesdale_sherri.html



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It sounds like Sherri was a good student who had a lot to look forward to, so it doesn't seem that she would disappear on her own.

One thing strikes me as odd - why did the family wait until the next day to report her missing? They looked for her all night, and thought she may have drowned in a creek because it was raining so heavily that night. It seems they would have called the police if for no other reason than to ascertain if a body had been found, or to learn if anyone had reported seeing anything suspicious that might relate to Sherri.

I would be interested to learn if the clerk at the department store personally knew Sherri and recognized her, or if she just saw someone who may have been Sherri.

June 13, 1970 was a Saturday. I wonder how often the bus ran on Saturday - would Sherri have had to wait a while at the bus stop after leaving the store around 4:30 p.m.? If so, maybe someone offered her a ride, she was tired of waiting for the bus and accepted the ride. Also, how far was the bus stop from where she was shopping? Was the bus stop on a busy street, or a side street?

I would think that on a Saturday in June, there would be a lot of people out and about, yet apparently no one reported seeing anything suspicious. This makes me think that Sherri may have gotten into someone's car willingly. If someone had forced her into a car, it seems someone would have seen that.

Was the bus driver questioned to determine whether or not Sherri got on the bus to go home? Was the driver absolutely certain Sherri had, or had not, gotten on? Or did the driver not remember?

Finally, how far is the Happy Hill Park from the shopping area, and how far from Sherri's home? Was this a place Sherri frequented?

So many questions . . .

Marilynilpa said:

One thing strikes me as odd - why did the family wait until the next day to report her missing? They looked for her all night, and thought she may have drowned in a creek because it was raining so heavily that night. It seems they would have called the police if for no other reason than to ascertain if a body had been found, or to learn if anyone had reported seeing anything suspicious that might relate to Sherri.

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I believe that back in 1970 there was a 24-hour period where most police stations wouldn't take a missing persons report unless there was clear evidence of foul play. Many people still think this condition exists, though it's not true anymore, at least not for children.

Also, a family may not report a person's disappearance for any number of benign reasons. My brother disappeared for several days once and my mother was in hysterics with worry, but she did not call the police because my brother had been in trouble and was on probation and she was worried that him being missing would constitute a violation and he'd have to go back to court. (He turned up safe and sound, btw.)

meggilyweggily said:

I believe that back in 1970 there was a 24-hour period where most police stations wouldn't take a missing persons report unless there was clear evidence of foul play. Many people still think this condition exists, though it's not true anymore, at least not for children.

Also, a family may not report a person's disappearance for any number of benign reasons. My brother disappeared for several days once and my mother was in hysterics with worry, but she did not call the police because my brother had been in trouble and was on probation and she was worried that him being missing would constitute a violation and he'd have to go back to court. (He turned up safe and sound, btw.)

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I understand that there may reasons why a police report isn't taken right away, but don't understand why the police were not even called. And I agree that in some cases, family might not want to involve the police at first.

But from what I've read this was a young girl who had not been in any trouble and who had nothing to fear from the police.

It's unusual, but I don't think it's significant. Denial may be a reason: calling the police is an acknowledgement that something has gone seriously wrong, whereas if they merely searched and waited they could still tell themselves "Sherri forgot to call home" or something.

Considering this time period, 1970, I can understand why the family waited until the following day to contact the authorities. It is very obvious that now-a-days anyone can be a killer, child predator, and or sexual deviant, this is the reason why parents/guardians don't waste time contacting the authorities when a child goes missing. In 1970, Sherri's parents probably weren't too concerned for their daughter's safety and were probably thinking that she missed her bus, was with a friend, etc.

I live within 40 miles of Winston Salem and I am near Sherri's age so I know what it was like growing up then and in that area.

Most parents just didn't call the police right away... they looked themselves for the first day and night. If they didn't find them, then got worried and called for help. Kidnapping just wasn't at the forefront of every parents mind in those years.

Although I never disappeared for any length of time. My parents may have thought I just got to big for my britches. That's what they call it in the south when you decide you are big enough to make your own decisions and not ask for permission. Her parents probably thought the same thing. They were probably talking more about which parent was gonna beat her a$$ when they found her... more than they were thinking someone had taken her. Atleast that's what my parents would have been talking about.

Yaya said:

I live within 40 miles of Winston Salem and I am near Sherri's age so I know what it was like growing up then and in that area.

Most parents just didn't call the police right away... they looked themselves for the first day and night. If they didn't find them, then got worried and called for help. Kidnapping just wasn't at the forefront of every parents mind in those years.

Although I never disappeared for any length of time. My parents may have thought I just got to big for my britches. That's what they call it in the south when you decide you are big enough to make your own decisions and not ask for permission. Her parents probably thought the same thing. They were probably talking more about which parent was gonna beat her a$$ when they found her... more than they were thinking someone had taken her. Atleast that's what my parents would have been talking about.

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What you say is true of teenagers all over the country. It is part of growing up and wanting to be independant. Unfortunatly, it is precisely this tendancy that serial pedophiles and sex offenders often target.

Sherri would be 50 years old now. She has been missing for 36 years.

Richard I knew you would be thinking of Sherri yesterday... me too.

It just amazes me that no bones or anything has been found. There has been so much construction in Winston Salem since that time. It makes me think she was taken to another area and killed.

I wonder if this disappearance could have any relation to bodies they found in the Reedy River in Greenville, South Carolina in 1975. They recovered the bodies of 16-year-old Kathy Smith, 17-year-old Cynthia Jones and another girl that I don't know if they ever identified. Greenville isn't too awful far from winston-Salem.

Also, in 1974 a man in Pickens South Carolina was charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl from a laundromat. She had went to get change, and the change machine wasn't working, this man, a house painter, named Virgil Preston Vinson, 36, told her he'd take her to see the manager according to her two little sisters. I don't know if they ever found her but Tammy Denice Haynes was missing for quite some time, also I know Vinson was charged, but I don't know if he was convicted. He denyed having anything to do with her disappearance. I think he is deceased now, I found this link with possibly his brother's obit....

Scroll down to Allie Vinson

http://www.gaffneyledger.com/Common/Obituaries/Archive%20Obits%202003/12-24-2003/12-24-2003.html

Bumping up her post. Another year has passed.

Hollow said:

I wonder if this disappearance could have any relation to bodies they found in the Reedy River in Greenville, South Carolina in 1975. They recovered the bodies of 16-year-old Kathy Smith, 17-year-old Cynthia Jones and another girl that I don't know if they ever identified. Greenville isn't too awful far from winston-Salem.

Also, in 1974 a man in Pickens South Carolina was charged with kidnapping a 12-year-old girl from a laundromat. She had went to get change, and the change machine wasn't working, this man, a house painter, named Virgil Preston Vinson, 36, told her he'd take her to see the manager according to her two little sisters. I don't know if they ever found her but Tammy Denice Haynes was missing for quite some time, also I know Vinson was charged, but I don't know if he was convicted. He denyed having anything to do with her disappearance. I think he is deceased now, I found this link with possibly his brother's obit....

Scroll down to Allie Vinson

http://www.gaffneyledger.com/Common/Obituaries/Archive Obits 2003/12-24-2003/12-24-2003.html

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How bizarre. This is my hometown newspaper! Greenville and Winston-Salem are about 3 hours apart. It would certainly be worth looking into a connection.

Any chance this guy has connections to Franklin Delano Floyd? The fact that he's another painter makes me wonder, especially because we don't know where Floyd was in 1974-1975 plus NC is right next to GA where he always was.