Jessica Ann Kinsey was 14 when she disappeared after leaving home in Union, Missouri, on December 26, 1995, to go to a friend’s house. That afternoon she was picked up by 23-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who brought along Mark Henderson and rode in Henderson’s 1994 Chevrolet Cavalier. Henderson says Hopkins claimed Jessica was pregnant and that they were headed to Niagara Falls to marry; Jessica’s mother later said Jessica was not pregnant and not dating Hopkins.

The trio stopped for the night in Cloverdale, Indiana, at a Dollar Inn. Henderson checked into a separate room and later reported hearing loud noises from Hopkins’s room, which he described as like a body being thrown against a wall. By morning Hopkins, Jessica, and the car were gone. The Cavalier was found abandoned in Compton, California, nearly two weeks later; witnesses there reported seeing Hopkins with a young woman matching Jessica’s description. Hopkins returned to Missouri in spring or early summer 1996, apparently alone, and when questioned in November 1996 denied harming Jessica and gave a false hotel address in Hollywood. He later allegedly told several people he had murdered her, but was never charged; Hopkins killed his wife and himself in April 2008. The case remains open in Union, Missouri.

Are there readers who remember seeing Jessica or the Cavalier in late December 1995 or saw Hopkins with a young woman in Compton?