(MICHELLE) JOLENE LAKEY - 11 yo (1986) - Scranton PA

It's been 23 years since the little 11-year-old girl with brown hair and bangs disappeared without a trace from Scranton's Hill Section. Investigators don't know what happened to Michelle Jolene Lakey, but they believe they know what she would look like today at 34 years old. A composite photo from the National Center for Missing Children shows her in her 30s, still wearing her brown hair with bangs. Her smile makes slight indentations in her cheeks similar to the way it looks in a photo circulated 17 hours after she was reported missing Aug. 26, 1986.



Jolene's case remains open, Scranton Police Chief David Elliott said, and it's possible the passage of time could loosen the lips of someone with valuable information about what happened to her."People may have not wanted to talk back in the day, and now it's something they may want to discuss," he said.Jolene was last seen leaving Mercy Hospital after visiting her mother, Lois Dunham. She was supposed to sleep over a friend's house about a block and a half away from her home at Rear 1372 N. Washington Ave. Jolene's case went four years without a major suspect, until state police received information linking her disappearance to Frank Osellanie, a former Scranton auto mechanic convicted in 1990 of raping and murdering 9-year-old Renee Waddle, also a Hill Section resident. Mr. Osellanie was never charged in relation to Jolene's case, but family members indicated she knew him and often visited his Walnut Street garage to play with his German shepherd.During Mr. Osellanie's trial, police received a tip he had been seen with a young girl at Lake Wallenpaupack around the time of Jolene's disappearance. Police searched the lake for Jolene's remains, including two islands near Iron Wood Point. They also searched Mr. Osellanie's garages at Walnut Street and Kessler Court, using special radar to look for voids in the concrete floors. Investigators also focused on a Brooklyn, N.Y., man, accused of raping a 14-year-old Scranton girl who had ties to Jolene, three months earlier. In September 1986, police searched his house after receiving tips Jolene may have been with him in New York.

They found no evidence to tie him to Jolene.Though the National Center for Missing Children is handling the case now, Chief Elliott said the case still holds an interest locally."We just want people to know she's not forgotten," he said.

Michele Jolene Lakey


Circa 1986


Age progression to age 31

Credit: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lakey_michelle.html

Mom retraces steps of city girl missing 26 years

By rebekah Brown (staff writer)
Published: August 27, 2012

Lois Dunham used to save the last two olives in the jar for her daughter, Jolene Lakey.

Now she just throws them away.

In October, Ms. Dunham will mark the 38th anniversary of the birth of her daughter, who went missing when she was 11. Jolene was walking toward her home at Rear 1372 N. Washington Ave. after visiting her mother at the former Mercy Hospital on Aug. 26,1986, but she never completed her trip.

"She will always be my 11-year-old child," Ms. Dunham said, standing in front of what is now Regional Hospital of Scranton.

Sunday, on the 26th anniversary of that day, Ms. Dunham was joined by family, friends and community members to retrace the last known steps of her daughter, symbolically completing the unfinished trek.

"As soon as I hit Lackawanna County today, I knotted up and started to cry," she said.

Ms. Dunham said that she and her family moved away from Scranton after Jolene disappeared because her children were harassed about the disappearance.

"It was a good place - I thought - to raise my kids," she said quietly.

Though it has been 26 years since her daughter was last seen getting into a car a few blocks from her home, the case remains unsolved, which is why the annual walk will continue, Ms. Dunham said.

"I want to keep this in the community's memory. She was a child here. She lived here," Ms. Dunham said, recalling a fearless girl who loved bright, mismatched colors.

Several members of the Scranton Police Department joined the approximately 20 walkers with the same hope.

"Maybe someone will see something in the paper or see us walk by and remember something about that day. Sometimes, (vigils) generate tips," Acting Deputy Lt. Bob Martin said. "She's a Scrantonian. She's part of our lives. It's an unsolved case. It's a cold case. Someday, we'd like to provide closure."

Jolene's unsolved story is one of many across the state and the country, said Jessica Dutter of Williamsport.

She founded Project Angel Eyes, a volunteer organization that works to locate missing people and support their families.

"I lived in Scranton most of my life and never heard of Jolene," she said of why she works to bring such cases to the public's attention.

"She's still somebody's sister and daughter and friend," she said. "She still deserves to either come home to her family or have a proper burial. We'll do it for 20 more years."

Strolling down Washington Avenue with her son-in-law's dog, Trixie, Ms. Dunham reflected on her animal-loving daughter. Learning what happened that day would not erase the pain, she said, but it would help to bring some closure.

"It would still be a hole," she said, describing the void in her heart. "It just wouldn't be an open wound."

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/mom-retraces-steps-of-city-girl-missing-26-years-1.1364229