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in: Montana, 1983, Abduction,
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Nyleen Marshall

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Real Name: Nyleen Kay Marshall
Nicknames: None known
Location: Alhambra, Clancy, Montana
Date: June 25, 1983

Bio[]

Date of Birth: September 18, 1978
Height: 3'2"
Weight: 29 lbs.
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: White female with brown hair and blue eyes. She had a chipped lower baby tooth at the time of her disappearance.

Case[]

Details: On June 25, 1983, four-year-old Nyleen Kay Marshall vanished while on a trip to the Elkhorn Mountains with her mother, Nancy, and stepfather, Kim. That day, they and several other families traveled to a picnic area in the Helena National Forest. At around 4pm, Nyleen and several other children went playing along the banks of a shallow creek. Some of them noticed her talking to an unidentified man in a purple jogging suit. He tried to get her to play a game he called "Follow the Shadow". He was the last person to be seen with her before she vanished.
For ten days, searchers combed the area where Nyleen was last seen. However, there was no evidence found to determine what happened to her. Kim and Nancy were certain that she had been abducted, so they distributed thousands of missing persons fliers across the country.
On November 27, 1985, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received an anonymous call from a man who claimed that he had Nyleen. Two months later, an organization called "Child Find of America" received a typewritten letter from him. He claimed that he was raising her as his own child and that he now called her "Kay". He also claimed that he loved her and did not plan on returning her to Kim and Nancy. Although he claimed that he was taking care of her, he also mentioned committing acts that are considered child sexual abuse.
Over the next six months, Child Find of America received two more letters and another two phone calls from the man. They came from Madison, Wisconsin; the FBI was able to trace some of the calls to specific phone booths both there in Madison and as well as in Edgerton. However, once those booths were located, the calls from them subsequently stopped. The letters were also postmarked from the Madison area. The man indicated that he has traveled with Nyleen to several different locations in the country; this matches the alleged sightings of her throughout the country.
In June 1990, authorities received another lead in this case. Nyleen's uncle saw two composites for a man and woman wanted for child abduction in another part of the country. He believes he saw them on the first day of the search for her.
To date, no trace of Nyleen or her alleged abductor have been found.

Suspects: Nyleen was last seen talking to a man in a purple jogging suit. He has never been identified and is considered a prime suspect in this case.
The man that has contacted several missing persons agencies is considered a possible suspect. He claims that he lives off of substantial investments and that he and Nyleen travel frequently. He allegedly traveled with her to San Francisco, New York City, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Great Britain. He has sent letters and made phone calls from Madison and Edgerton, Wisconsin. He claims that his parents and younger sister were killed in a car accident when the latter was nine.
An unidentified man and woman wanted for a separate child abduction are considered possible suspects. Nyleen's uncle believes that he saw them on the first day of the search for her.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has also indicated that Kim was a person of interest in this case.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the November 21, 1990 episode. It was also briefly featured after the end of the movie Adam.
  • Nyleen's biological father's name is William Roy Briscoe.
  • The composite sketch of male and female individuals that were reportedly seen on the day of the search for Nyleen closely resemble Franklin Delano Floyd and Sharon Marshall. He was a serial rapist and murderer, and she was his vitcim when he kidnaped her at a young age and raised her as his daughter and later it was revealed that her true name is Suzanne Sevakis. Interestingly her assumed surname is also Marshall.

Results: Unsolved. After the broadcast, a viewer contacted the telecenter, believing that one of his students was Nyleen. However, when police went to her house, it was discovered that she was actually another missing child named Monica Bonilla. She had been abducted by her father several years earlier. Shortly after the discovery, she was reunited with her mother.
In August 1991, forty-two-year-old Richard James Wilson confessed to killing Nyleen and another woman. He had a 1984 conviction in Helena for sexually assaulting a minor. He also had a history of mental illness. He was held in jail for a week but was released after authorities stated they did not have enough evidence to charge him. It is not known if he is still considered a suspect in this case.
In 1995, Nancy was found dead in a Mexico City hotel room. At first, authorities ruled her death a suicide. However, the status of this case was later changed to "undetermined/under investigation". Kim, along with other family and friends, believe she was raped and murdered. It is not believed that her death had anything to do with Nyleen's disappearance.
In 1998, investigators looked into the possibility that a nineteen-year-old Oklahoma woman calling herself "Helena" was Nyleen. She was taken to a New Orleans hospital to give birth. She was evasive when the staff asked questions about her past. One of them later saw a re-airing of the broadcast and suspected that she may have been Nyleen. She remembered little of her childhood and believed that her mother's name was Nyleen. She agreed to have her blood tested and compared to that of Nancy. It is not known what the test results revealed; however, it is believed that she was not a match.
Although not mentioned in the original broadcast, Kim was considered a suspect in this case and some local people strongly believe he had something to do with Nyleen's disappearance.
At one point there was a rumor that Kim was involved in some shady things at the time of Nyleen's disappearance and also never mentioned was that at the time when she vanished in that particular area there was a wooden cabin that was later discovered to be used for drug smuggling business and later it was burned down, but there are no solid evidence to connect it to her disappearance.
Sadly, Nyleen's disappearance remains a mystery. If she is still alive, she would now be in her forties.
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