SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
Former Member
Missing Since: June 6, 1978 from Jericho, Vermont
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: February 10, 1973
Age: 5 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair. Grace's nickname is Gracie.
Details of Disappearance
Gracie and her mother, Grace Marie Canto Reapp, disappeared from their residence on Hanley Lane in rural Jericho, Vermont on June 6, 1978. Grace allegedly left a note stating that she and Gracie left their home and had no plans to return. Neither of them has been heard from again. Grace's husband, Michael Eugene Reapp, reported his wife and daughter missing to the Vermont State Police on June 11, 1978, five days after Grace and Gracie were last seen. Michael then filed for divorce from Grace on June 16, 1978, ten days after she vanished. He cited desertion and intolerable severity as his reasons for the dissolution of marriage. Michael and Grace were also the parents of two sons who were 11 and 7 years old in 1978. Grace's relatives stated it would be uncharacteristic of her to abandon her sons.
Authorities questioned Michael regarding his wife and daughter's disappearances shortly after he filed the police reports in 1978. He and Grace married in 1965, when he was 20 and she was 19 years old. Michael admitted that he had several extramarital affairs while wed to Grace, and was having one at the time of her disappearance. There were reports that Grace was physically abused by Michael. He maintained that Grace took their daughter of her own free will and simply vanished. In a letter he wrote to Grace's family members in December 1978, he stated he believed Grace had left because she was having an affair and she left her sons behind because they knew about the affair.
Michael was granted a divorce from Grace in July 1979, just over one year after she was last seen. He married their children's former babysitter in November 1979; they divorced in 1985. He continued to tell authorities that he believed Grace and Gracie were living with Grace's relatives and stated that he hoped Gracie would contact him in the future. Grace's family, however, continued to investigate their disappearances and heard from neither Grace nor Gracie since 1978.
The missing persons case was reopened in the summer of 1987. Extensive searches of the Reapps' former Vermont property have been conducted since 1978. Investigators have not located any sign of Grace or Gracie's whereabouts. Their cases were reclassified as homicides in 1996. Michael moved his sons to Florida and remarried for a third time by the mid-1990s. Vermont authorities interviewed Michael in Florida in September 1996. He continued to claim he believed his former wife and daughter were fine. In May 1996, one of Grace's sons died in Germany of natural causes.
Michael left his home in Jupiter, Florida on October 26, 1996. He drove his gray 1994 Isuzu pickup truck with with Florida plates numbered JJZ55G to New Orleans, Louisiana, and bank record show he made a withdrawal at New Orleans automatic teller machine (ATM). Michael and Grace's surviving son reported his father as a missing person to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department in November 1996. Michael's truck was located at an airport in New Orleans in December 1996, but there was no trace of him. He took only his toothbrush and cigarettes. There was a possible sighting of Michael in Cozumel, Mexico in 2000, but his loved ones have not heard from him since 1996.
Grace's family members had her and Gracie declared legally deceased in 1997. In June 2006, authorities charged Michael with first-degree murder in connection with Grace's disappearance and second-degree murder in connection with Gracie's. They theorize that Grace was killed because she found out about Michael's affair, and Gracie was killed because she witnessed her mother's murder. Michael remains at large and investigators have had little information on his whereabouts since he disappeared in 1996. Grace and Gracie's remains have not been recovered.
A photo of Michael and his 1996 vital statistics are posted below. Investigators are renewing their efforts to find him so he can stand trial for the murders of Grace and Gracie.
Left: Michael, circa 1996;
Right: Age-progression to an unknown age
Date Of Birth: July 30, 1945
Age: 51 years old
Height and Weight: 5'10, 165 - 180 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair, brown eyes. Michael may have a beard and/or moustache. He wears a full set of dentures. Michael wears contact lenses or eyeglasses.
Other Details: Michael has experience working as a dockmaster. He attended the United States Coast Guard Academy, but never graduated. Michael was employed as an air traffic controller until the nationwide strike in 1981. He smokes cigarettes.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Vermont State Police
802-524-5993
Extension 2705
