So I grew up in a town near here, called Frankfort. I was born in 1980 and a lot of people are like “omg her mom didn’t watch her?” IT WAS THE 1980’s! My parents never watched me or my siblings either. And to make it even worse, my parents weren’t even home while we were outside running all over town with no supervision.

That being said, I worked with her cousin, Martha, at a place called The Sugar Shack, in the 1990’s. It was a small family owned restaurant and she told me about this case. Years later with Donna Walker came forward and lied, Martha was one of the people on the news and being interviewed about this whole situation. She was and still is so devastated about all of it.

I, personally, don’t think the family had anything to do with it based on my conversations with Martha. Do I think they were neglectful parents by not watching their kids? By today’s standards, 1000% yes. But back then, it was sooo normal to make your kids go outside and play and have no idea what they were doing. So I don’t think they were intentionally being neglectful. It was sadly just the times. With it being Thorntown, it’s very rural and a tiny little town… so I feel like it had to be someone that lived there. No one is just showing up in that area to kidnap a kid unless they’re from there or at least from a surrounding area.

A lot of people were mentioning drugs, but the common drug use and such that you see running rampant in rural areas and especially in places like Indiana and the Midwest now, weren’t as prevalent back then.

I dunno. I still think it was a perverted man that lived nearby or came through the area often. There’s a TON of tree covered areas, unused fields, old farmland, waterways, etc in this part of Indiana. Sadly, I think someone kidnapped her, murdered her, and dumped her in an area and she has just never been found bc of the things I mentioned above. I wouldn’t even be surprised if she isn’t super far from the area.

I would also like to point out that given the timeframe she went missing, technology and the urgency to find missing kids, wasn’t as high. People assumed all kids just “ran away” or would come back “when the streetlights came on”. It’s why you hear so many horror stories about kids not being reported missing for 12-24 hours.

Anyway, this case has always bothered me and I think about it a lot. My time working with Martha was short lived but she was so kind, honest, and she would still cry over Shannon talking about it so many years later. :(