Almost three decades after a teenage girl mysteriously disappeared after telling her parents she was going to see a friend, a man has been busted in the cold case.
Jamison ‘Jamie’ Fisher, 50, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with murdering Trudy Appleby, who was 11 years old when she was last seen in August 1996 near her home in Moline, Illinois.
Fisher was taken into custody one week before the 29th anniversary of Trudy vanishing.
‘The arrest of Fisher marks a turning point in this mystery that has spanned nearly three decades,’ said Moline police Chief Darren Gault outside of the Henry County Courthouse in Cambridge on Thursday.
‘While nothing can bring back young Trudy to her family, the relentless pursuit of justice honors her memory and the unwavering support of her loved ones and our community.’
Trudy was last spotted in a one-piece swimsuit, shorts and T-shirt and with a beach towel. She asked her dad if she could go swimming with a friend by Campbell’s Island and was told no. Phone records suggested that she made arrangements to go nonetheless, investigators said.
In 2017, police disclosed that a witness reported seeing Trudy with William ‘Ed’ Smith in a Chevrolet four-door vehicle near Smith’s home on Campbell’s Island and listed him as a person of interest.
Fisher was a longtime family friend of the Smiths, and also named as a person of interest.
Smith has since died. Meanwhile, Fisher has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and a count of concealment of a homicidal death.
Trudy’s body was never found, and the search for her remains continues.
But authorities have pointed to hundreds of cases that have been prosecuted while the victims are still missing.
Henry County State Attorney Catherine Runty said her office does ‘look forward to proceeding to trial’.
‘We are committed to bringing justice to the members of our communities working across agencies and jurisdictional boundaries to ensure that our citizens are protected,’ she said.
Fisher was named as a person of interest in 2020.
He has been held in Scott County Jail since being arrested in July for narcotics charges that are not related to Trudy’s case.
Fisher’s arrest comes 10 months after a California mum was busted for allegedly dumping her newborn son’s remains in a grocery bag on the side of a road 30 years ago.
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