In this week's edition of "The Missing," we revisit the mysterious disappearance of Sarah E. Kinslow, a 14-year-old resident of Greenville, Texas, who went missing on May 1, 2001.
"On the day that Sarah disappeared my husband drove her to school because she wanted to get there early," Sarah's mother, Louise Kinslow, said in a telephone interview with Investigation Discovery. "About an hour or so later our phone rang and someone asked to speak with her. It was a guy's voice and he said he wanted to talk to her. I told him that she was in school and that was the extent of the conversation. It was extremely strange and I took note of that."
According to Louise, she continued about her day and went to work at her part-time job. At about 5:00 p.m., her oldest daughter called and said that she had received a call from one of Sarah's friends. According to the friend, Sarah was supposed to skip school but she never showed up at the designated meeting place. Concerned, Louise contacted the police and reported her daughter missing.
"The night before she went missing, Sarah and I had gone to her school to enroll her in classes for the next year," Louise said. "We had a pleasant evening and we both enjoyed ourselves. There was nothing in her behavior to suggest she had been planning on leaving; however about two or three weeks prior we did have an argument, during which she went into her room and started jamming clothes into her backpack. I asked her what she was doing and she said 'I'm leaving.' I told her not to be hasty. She then looked up at me and said 'I can leave and you will never find me. I know so many people that you will never find me.' When she said that it scared me to death and the hair on the back of my neck stood up because I knew she meant it."
The day after Sarah went missing Louise contacted the police and asked them if they could use their blood hound to track her daughters scent. After providing them with an article of Sarah's clothing, which they used to familiarize the hound with her scent, investigators went to the spot where Sarah's father had dropped her off at school. The hound quickly picked up on a scent trail and led them to a location approximately two blocks away; however, the scent came to an abrupt end in the middle of a street.
Police later received a tip that Sarah had been spotted at a phone booth outside of Greenville. Investigators took the blood hound there and it successfully tracked Sarah's scent across the road to someone's house. Police officers questioned the occupants, but they claimed they did not know who Sarah was.
About a week and a half later, Sarah's brother saw her walking away from a house about two blocks north of her school; however, according to Louise, she was not open to having a conversation with him.
"About a month after that I decided to change the missing person flyers. I knew that if I was a girl who had run away and I didn't want anyone to find me, the first thing I would do is change my hair. Her hair was long and blonde, so I figured she would probably darken and cut it. I used a computer to alter one of her pictures to reflect those changes. Afterwards, I took it around and a clerk at a local gas station said he recognized her. The police got the surveillance footage from the station owner and showed it to me. It was defiantly her but she was not alone. A guy was with her and he was somebody I recognized. He was one of the people that Sarah was supposed to meet the day she skipped school. He is four years older than her."
Investigators questioned the guy but again the lead went nowhere.
The next sighting of Sarah, although not confirmed, occurred on December 25, 2001.
"My neighbors called the police and told them that they had seen Sarah in car with a group of people about 35 miles from here. They said they were one-hundred percent positive it was her," Louise said. "The police used the license plate number to track down the owner, who lived in another town in the opposite direction. The officer did not feel it was necessary to question the owner in person, so he called him on the phone and asked him if Sarah had been in the car. The guy denied she was and the lead never went any further."
According to Louise, investigators have conducted polygraph tests on several of Sarah's friends but have yet to release the test results.
"I really don't know who passed," Louise said. "I'm planning on getting the police file, which is extremely large. Several years ago one of the detectives told me he had more information in her file then a typical homicide case."
Louise's goal is to find out if her daughter is safe and until then she plans to continue searching for her. She wants Sarah to know that her family misses her and that not a day goes by that she is not in their thoughts.
When asked what she would like to say to her daughter, Louise responded:
"I love you and I miss you. You don't have to come home. I don't expect you to. Please just call us and tell us you are ok. That's my main concern are you ok?
Sarah E. Kinslow is described as a white female, 5'4" tall, 105 lbs., with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her teeth are crooked and she has several ear piercings, a tattoo of the letter "I" on the inside of her ankle, a chicken pox scar on her left temple, and two chicken pox scars on her left cheek. Anyone with information is asked to call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) or the Greenville Police Department at 903-457-2900.
For more information or to help, please visit: www.sarahkinslow.faithweb.com.
If you are a family member of a missing loved one and have a case you would like covered here, contact David Lohr via e-mail. If you are a reader who would like to help, please spread the word about this blog so others can find us. The more people who see these stories, the better the chances that someone might come forward with information.