disappearance of Anthonette Cayedito

Anthonette Christine Cayedito (born December 25, 1976) is a Native American girl who disappeared from her home in Gallup, New Mexico, on April 6, 1986. Authorities found no evidence following an extensive three-day search, but suspected Cayedito had been abducted and were treating her disappearance as foul play. A year after her disappearance, a girl claiming to be Cayedito phoned the Gallup Police Department, stated her name multiple times and said she was in Albuquerque, before an unknown adult yelled "Who said you could use the phone?" followed by the girl screaming. The phone call was disconnected and could not be traced; Cayedito's mother Penny listened to the 40-second tape recording repeatedly and said the caller was her daughter.

Multiple alleged sightings of Cayedito were reported between 1986 and 1991; police also received hundreds of tips from the general public, but none have proved useful to the investigation. The disappearance was featured on a 1992 episode of Unsolved Mysteries, which brought renewed attention to the case, but no viable leads. Penny died in 1999 from liver cirrhosis and cardiac issues. Some detectives believe Penny knew who had abducted her daughter and had more intimate knowledge of the disappearance, citing a failed polygraph test and a confession to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but no charges were ever filed. Although law enforcement officials believe her to be deceased, Cayedito is still officially listed as a missing person and her case remains open.

Background Anthonette Christine Cayedito was born on December 25, 1976, to Theresa "Penny" Cayedito, of the Navajo Nation, and Larry Estrada, a carpenter. She is of "Navajo and Italian descent". were raised by their mother in Gallup, New Mexico. After her disappearance, her father remarked: "She was 9 going on 15." Her mother, Penny, had been out with friends at a local bar the previous night and Anthonette, along with her younger sisters Wendy and Sadie, were at home with a babysitter. When Penny awoke at 7 a.m. to prepare the girls for Bible school, she realized Anthonette was not in her bedroom. After inquiring with neighbors, she telephoned the police. Police and volunteers used three- and four-wheel drive vehicles, horses and motorcycles to scour areas in and around southwest Gallup, but only located existing tracks. Cayedito's clothing and belongings were not taken from the home and there was no evidence consistent with a forced entry or a struggle at the front door. Detectives questioned relatives, friends, and neighbors living within a three-block radius of the Cayedito house and conducted more than three dozen interviews with people who knew Cayedito. Detective Amos Hinshaw stated: "My gut feeling is that some family members may not be telling us all they know." The caller was a young girl who claimed to be Cayedito, saying that she was in Albuquerque. An angry adult voice was heard shouting, "Who said you could use the phone?!" followed by the girl screaming and the sounds of a scuffle, after which the phone call was cut off. Penny listened to the recording repeatedly and stated, "It was her voice. I would know my baby's voice anywhere." Detective Marty Esquibel said that the call was too short to be traced, which meant police were unable to determine where the call originated from. Louisa was found alive in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, a month later and returned home. Over the years there have been questions over potential connections between the two cases.

Five years after the disappearance, Wendynow aged 10gave her account of the disappearance for the first time. When she opened the door, she was grabbed by two men. Kicking and screaming, "Let me go! Let me go!" the men forced her into a brown van. Wendy did not recognize the men as she did not get a look at their faces. Penny claimed that the knock happened between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., and that it was "just getting light" when she got up thirty minutes later.

Four years later, in 1991, a waitress at a restaurant in Carson City, Nevada, encountered a teenage girl matching Cayedito's description in the company of an unkempt couple.

In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal in 2016, Wendy Montoya, Cayedito's youngest sister, spoke of the struggles that she and her family went through: "It just broke my whole family up. It was a very dark and dysfunctional time."

On April 6, 2021, the 35th anniversary of Cayedito's disappearance, the FBI announced renewed search efforts for Cayedito and asked for assistance from the general public. Special agent in charge Eric Brown Sr. stated: "We are asking anyone who might have information about this case to come forward now and help us find Anthonette." In the interview, Acevedo also publicly conveyed a message to her missing sister, "She's safe. She has a family that loves her. She has sisters. We haven't given up. We all wonder and often think about Anthonette and what's she doing. Does she have kids? What kind of life is she living?"

Unidentified persons exclusions According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, the following decedents were ruled out as being the remains of Cayedito.

Name Location Date Age Cause of death Circumstances Bernalillo County Jane Doe Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2, 1996 14–19 Undetermined Remains of an unidentified female were found near 98th and Tower Road in Albuquerque, NM. The decedent was wrapped in dark green or black plastic bags (six in all). The top of the outer bag was tied with a green electrical wire with a copper colored core. The bottom of the bag was tied about the legs with a white 1/4" diameter rope. There were multiple fractures of the left skull and left lower leg present. She was likely a mixture of white, Hispanic, and Native American.