Carrollton (Texas) was a small town in the suburbs of Dallas. But after the disappearance of 2 local young girls in 1988, this quaint town has lost its crystal-clear reputation.
Susan Smalley (18) and Stacey Madison (17) were beautiful girls and best friends. In the spring of 1988, they were focused on graduating from high school, because there were only 2 months of study left.
Stacy worked part-time with a famous allergist and hoped to go to college. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and a dazzling smile. Her mother, Ida, said that the boys often called home, begging to see her. Stacey was a wonderful daughter, she recalls.
Stacy Madison.
Susan was an excellent student and dreamed of moving to sunny Florida. She had brown hair and charming green eyes. She was sociable and loved meeting new people. Susan's brother - Rich Smalley - noted that she was always surrounded by friends.
Susan Smalley.
On March 19, 1988, the two girls decided to spend the last night of spring break together and planned to spend the night at Stacey's house. In the evening, Susan and Stacey got into a light yellow 1967 Mustang and drove to the Prestonwood Mall to pick up Susan's mom, Carolyn Odette, who worked there to drive her home. At Susan's home, both girls changed into smart clothes. Carolyn had a date that evening. The friends went to a friend's party in Arlington. They left the party at about 22:00 and drove to Stacey's house, from where she made a phone call to a friend. Despite the fact that they were supposed to have lights out at 24:00, the girls returned to the party shortly after midnight. Between 12:30 and 13:00, Susan and Stacy headed to a restaurant in Addison, where Susan worked as a waitress. Susan chatted with a young man she worked with,and then the girls drove off in the Mustang. This was the last time they were seen.
Light yellow "Mustang" 1967.
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When it was revealed that the girls had not spent the night at home that night, worried parents announced their disappearance. Stacy's mother walked and looked out the window, hoping to see her daughter drive up.
Shortly after the parents' appeal, police found Stacy's abandoned car in Forest Lane. The car was closed, the girls' jackets were in the back seat. For reasons unknown to this day, neither the Dallas Police nor the Carrollton Police investigated the car for fingerprints or any form of DNA.
Detective Greg Ward, who took on the case 4 months later, said the original investigation team assumed the girls had simply fled and viewed their disappearance as something that they would walk up and return home.
However, the girls' families began to think that something terrible had happened to them. They simply could not do this to their parents - they didn’t have the character to just go and disappear without letting anyone know where they were. Moreover, they were good students, ready to enter and get higher education. And nothing happened in their life that would make them flee, and there was no secret life that anyone knew about. Over time, the investigators in the case also concluded that they were most likely kidnapped. Most likely, at that party they met someone, - suggested detective Greg Ward.
The disappearance of the girls sent a chill down the backs of the residents of Carrollton, and their classmates learned a lesson: a terrible thought flashed through everyone's mind that this could happen to anyone. They were just two ordinary teenage girls enjoying their last freedom before heading off to college. While the main theory was that they had been abducted, shortly after the disappearance was made public, 2 witnesses showed up and reported that they saw 2 girls similar to Susan and Stacy on the night of their disappearance. According to them, they were hanging out on the popular drag lane in the warehouse area near the LBJ and Interstate 35E.
Photos of the wanted girls were everywhere.
In pursuit of clues, the Carrollton police contacted local psychic John Cutchings. During a 3-hour consultation, the psychic claimed that the girls were kidnapped and killed by a white man who was between 28 and 34 years old with blond hair and glasses. According to John's visions, the man, after committing the murder, threw their bodies near the lake into a vine.
The search of the indicated place did not reveal anything. In the early stages of the investigation, Carrollton's police were flooded with calls from people around the country. One version emerged when a psychologist reported that he had a “feeling” that the teenagers crossed the Mexican border with two men. Police also received a phone call from a woman who claimed to have seen girls at a supermarket in Houston, while another caller said he saw girls at a Madison, West Virginia salon. One caller said that Madison was visiting an inmate at the Bushnell Prison. A few weeks after the disappearance, the local police received a call from an anonymous person who said, "Susan and Stacy are fine." The call came on an unrecorded line, meaning the call could not be traced. Each version led the police to a standstill.
Calls were made to the police very often, but all to no avail.
After Stacey disappeared, her family hired a private detective, but he could not find any leads. They eventually fired him, spending over $ 3,000. In the years that followed, Stacy's father, Frank Madison, continued to drive her attractive yellow Mustang in the hopes that someone, somewhere, might recognize the car and remember what might lead to the girls being discovered. “It’s like they were lifted off the ground,” Frank said. In 1996, Frank died of cancer without ever knowing what happened to his daughter.
The main suspect in the disappearance was Stacy's boyfriend, Kevin Elrod. One of Stacy's friends, Janine White, claimed that Stacy once confessed to her that Elrod was abnormally overbearing and possessive. According to Ida, Stacy tried to end their relationship but could not find a way to end it peacefully. Shortly before she disappeared, Stacey told her mother that if Elrod called her home and looked for her, then tell him that I was meeting with Susan. When he called, Ida conveyed everything her daughter asked.
Even more disturbing were the words of another friend: Elrod confessed that he had killed Stacy and Susan with a shovel before burying them in the cemetery near Highway 121. Elrod was thoroughly interrogated and polygraph in 1988. The cemetery was searched, but no trace of the girlfriends was found. He later said that he "killed" the girls solely because he was tired of people asking about the disappearance and hinting that he was involved in it. Elrod left Texas and changed his name. His ex-wife later obtained an order to approach her after he threatened her with a knife. Over the years, suspicions have persisted.
Stacy's mother, Ida, turned to television with a request to help with information about her daughter after more than 30 years.
In 2011, the Carrollton police released several photographs asking to identify anyone in the photographs. According to police, the photos may have been a missing puzzle piece.
More than 30 years later, what happened to Susan Smalley and Stacy Madison still remains a big mystery. Their families believe that most likely Stacy and Susan are dead, ignorance has kept the memories alive, so it is impossible to do some form of closure. “Even today there is a faint glimmer of hope that she can return to my life,” said Carolyn Odette. But over time, this hope dims.