MOLINE, Ill. — It's been 25 years since Trudy Appleby disappeared from her home in Moline. Since 1996, her loved ones have kept her memory alive through countless avenues, saying someday, somewhere, someone will speak up about where her body is.
Trudy went missing as an 11-year-old girl. She was last seen wearing a swimsuit, with a beach towel in hand, getting into a car with a man that appeared to be in his 20s. While police have named several people of interest and followed property leads over the years, there still remains more questions than answers.
A vigil will be held for Trudy on Saturday, August 21, the 25th anniversary since she vanished. The event will be at 6:30 at First Baptist Church in East Moline, 167 Avenue Of The Cities. Her family says all are welcome to attend and light a candle in her memory.
For her old neighbor, Kelly Carlson, it's hard to believe how much time has passed.
"I never would have dreamed we'd still be here looking for an answer 25 years later," she told News 8. "I was 37 when Trudy went missing. I am 62. Trudy would be turning, this year she would be turning 37."
Carlson remembers Trudy as a smart, vibrant, loving child. The first day she met Trudy, Carlson looked out her window and saw a girl jumping around her yard.
"I said, 'Can I help you?' And she said, 'My name is Trudy. You guys have kids?' And I sent my daughter out to play with her. She was just a fixture from then on out," said Carlson. "She was here all the time. She was a very trusting child."
It's that memory of Trudy, forever frozen as an 11-year-old that loved to rollerblade and skip down the road, that Carlson plays in her mind.
"We never got to experience her growing up. We never got a teenage Trudy or a young adult Trudy," she said. "She doesn't have a voice anymore. Somebody stole that from her. So we all have to be her voice until we find out what they did with her."
Being that voice has meant countless interviews and years of vigils. Every year Carlson writes a letter to the editor, and she constantly helps update Trudy's group Facebook page. It's heartbreaking, tiring work. But it's something Carlson says she'll continue... for as long as it takes.
"I'll keep this up till I'm dead. Unless we find her before then. If I got to go to the grave looking for it, that's what I'm gonna do."
After all of these years, Carlson still has hope that one day someone will come forward with information.
"It's terrible. To not know where one of your loved ones is. To have them gone, but to not know where they are. To not know what happened to them. You don't have a body. You don't have a grave to go to. All there is is a bench with her name on it. And what we need is Trudy," she said.
Part of that hope comes from something Trudy used to say, Carlson told News 8.
"She wore a yin and yang necklace," she said. "Because Trudy always said, and this was coming from a little, little child, for just as much bad in this world, there is also just as much good. So for the bad people that know where she's at, why don't you try using some of that good that send you and tell us where she is?"
The other thing that keeps her search going, is a promise Carlson made to Trudy's mom, Brenda, who was killed in 2014, after being hit by a van.
"Brenda's biggest fear was that nobody would come forward and everybody would forget about Trudy and she would just be brushed under the rug. And I promised her that I would never let that happen. That I would do whatever I could to not let anybody forget her," said Carlson. "I promised her mom. And I also promised Trudy."
Today, Carlson also uses Trudy's story to advocate for child safety.
"We all watched our kids a little closer after that. Because we didn't think anything like that would happen in this neighborhood. We have a safe neighborhood," she said. "But I'm here to tell you don't think it can't happen in your neighborhood."
She's seen the number of people at Trudy's vigils dwindle over the years, especially as several members of Trudy's family have passed away. However, Carlson says those who loved Trudy will never stop the search.
"She was a real person. She was just a little girl. She wasn't a statistic," said Carlson. "We still don't have Trudy and that's what we need. The answer is just beyond our reach."