Girl's disappearance gets renewed interest 45 years later

Almost half a century ago, a little girl in southeast Missouri went missing. Today, her sister in Arlington Heights is amazed how the Internet has rocketed the case back into the spotlight.

Beth Gill was not quite 3 years old when she disappeared from in front of her family home in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

The FBI in August reclassified the case as an abduction and said it would investigate. In 1965, it didn't get involved in missing person cases unless there was evidence of a kidnapping, such as a ransom note.

Beth was the youngest of 10 siblings, and her oldest sister, Anola Stowick of Arlington Heights, who is now in her 60s, had just graduated from high school and was with relatives in Chicago planning to work for the summer.

After Beth disappeared, close-knit hometown of 25,000 started a massive search, said Stowick, with volunteer clubs joining in and the U.S. Coast Guard dredging the Mississippi River a few blocks away.

"We always thought someone who wanted a child took her. At least for us 'kids,' the thought that someone would sell a child or the notion of sexual abuse never occurred to us," said Stowick.

If she had wandered away, a neighbor would have brought her home, family members believed. Beth never played in the street, and no one in the family believes she could have crossed two streets and other obstacles, then fallen into the Mississippi River.

As far as Stowick knew, suspicion never fell on anyone in the neighborhood. Rather, the family always believed that a small group of traveling peddlers who disappeared the day Beth went missing had snatched her.

But according to a letter from J. Edgar Hoover to Beth's father, Harry Gill, the FBI could not actively investigate a missing person unless there was evidence of an abduction.

Times have changed, and the FBI now investigates any case of a missing child until it is proved not to be a kidnapping. Rebecca Wu of the FBI office in St. Louis told the Associated Press she could not say if there was any new evidence for the FBI to pursue.

An account written this summer by Martha Hamilton, one of Beth's sisters, said the FBI is looking into a lead that points to the peddlers.

The FBI news, authorities' improved communication and Internet activity over the last five years have given the family new hope of finding out what happened to Beth.

But one reason Stowick is speaking out now after keeping quiet in the past is to urge parents to keep identity kits on their children, including DNA samples, which might some day give families peace of mind. Four women have come forward saying they might be Beth, but comparisons with DNA from family members that is also in a national FBI database have ruled them out.

"You think it can't happen to you," she said. "That's what we thought. It's a small town where we'd know our neighbors for three generations, and it happened."

Stowick, who works in convention and meeting planning for a not-for-profit association, tells of a family that after 45 years still believes their loved one is alive.

"We were so naive," she said. "When she turned six we thought 'Now she'll have to start school, and she won't have papers and the school will notify police, and she'll be brought home.' I should have known that people fall through the cracks all the time."

But every time Beth passed an age landmark, the family thought "now something is going to happen."

It was this belief that the answer was just around the corner that kept family members from falling apart, said Stowick.

For years, Beth's family did not talk much publicly, thinking it would not do any good, said Stowick. But about five years ago they learned the case had been mentioned on a website.

Eventually another website helped friends trace one of the peddlers' cars, and authorities have been able to track one of the people, said Stowick.

Friends urged the family to take advantage of the Internet, and in early April, Hamilton, the sister who has acted as the family spokesman, started a Facebook page called "Finding Beth Gill" that has almost 2,000 members.

Since then, a prayer vigil was held at the old parish church on June 13, the 45th anniversary of Beth's disappearance. Their father died in 1970, and the siblings hoped to provide closure for their 83-year-old mother, who they try to protect from false hope.

On Aug. 21, the profile of the case was raised when a group called Missouri Missing organized a balloon launch in her honor, noting Beth as the longest-missing person registered in the state. And today, the family is expecting the story to air on the television show "Good Morning America."

The family is hopeful all the interest will lead to new information, said Stowick.

"It's this Internet business that really got people going."