Mary Louise Day

Mary Louise Day (February 19, 1968 - 2017) was an American teenager who, at age 13 in 1981, mysteriously disappeared from her home in Seaside, California.

Mary Day was born in Little Falls, New York, on February 19, 1968, to Charlotte Day (né Pressler) and her husband Charles Day.

She had two younger sisters, Kathy and Sherrie.

Mary and her sisters did not have easy childhoods; they were in and out of foster homes in their early years because their mother was often unable to care for them.

At some point while the girls were in foster care, Charlotte divorced from Charles and remarried to a man named William Houle.

In 1975, Houle enlisted in the United States Army, and Charlotte attained permanent and full custody of Mary and Kathy shortly thereafter, leaving Sherrie behind in foster care.

In 1978, the family moved to Hawaii due to Houle being stationed there.

By this time, Sherrie had been legally adopted by one of her foster families (the Walts family) and was thereby separated from her birth family.

Before leaving New York, Charlotte gave birth to a daughter, Billie Jeanne.

The family then moved to an army base in Georgia.

Later, while in Hawaii, Charlotte gave birth to a son, William Jr. Mary's biological father Charles Day was killed in an accident during this time, leaving inheritance money to Mary and Kathy.

They would refer to this money as their escape plan and use the code word "Mohawk" when discussing it.

In December 1980, Mary was removed from her mother and stepfather's care and taken into protective custody after it was discovered that William was physically abusing her.

The family then moved to Seaside, California, following a change in William's base.

But Mary was kept in Hawaii until a few months later, when she was sent to live with the rest of her family in California.

While Mary was in Seaside, she frequently attempted to run away from her home but would always be returned by police officers.

This, however, was never proven and was only told to police by Charlotte Houle.

On or around July 15, 1981, Mary Day disappeared from her home in California.

Her parents did not report her missing, and almost no one aside from them knew she was missing.

In 1992, Sherrie (Waits) Calgaro filed a missing persons report to the Ft. Ord military base in California, but by then eleven years had passed and police did not launch a full investigation.

Sherrie was sent a postcard that stated the police had done a records search and no information was found.

Sherrie sent information about Mary Day and a photo of her to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in late 1999, at which point an image of how Mary might have looked at the time was developed.

This age-progressed image depicted her at age 31.

No one has been able to explain how this age-progressed photo that carries almost 99% accuracy in cases does not look at all like the missing woman who turned up in Arizona.

Sherrie spoke to police regarding Mary's disappearance, and an official investigation was opened in 2002 as Ft. Ord was being shut down and all cold cases were being reviewed.

Her family were the only ones who knew about her disappearance; their neighbors were unable to recall them and did not recognize pictures of Mary, who had not been enrolled in school while living in Seaside.

Kathy was able to give a more detailed account of the night of Mary Day's disappearance.

She and Mary stayed home while William, Charlotte, and their two siblings went out to dinner.

When they returned, William's dog, of which he was very fond, began presenting signs of physical illness that made him appear to be dying.

William became extremely angry and accused Mary of poisoning the dog, after which he began to beat her.

Kathy said William began to yell, scaring her, shortly after which "all hell broke loose."

She further said she remembered the fight between Mary and William, and that Mary had been yelling.

She concluded by stating that the last time she saw Mary, she had blood coming out of her mouth.

The next morning, Kathy said, Mary Day was no longer in the house.

When she asked her mother where Mary went, Charlotte told her that Mary ran away and to never speak her name again.

Sometime later, the family moved to New York (Sherrie was 12 at the time) where Sherrie visited them.

She noticed that Mary was not with them and asked Charlotte where Mary was.

Charlotte again said that Mary had run away, was on drugs, and had become a prostitute.

Charlotte had also stated she had burned all pictures of Mary that she had.

She was found alive in 2003, a little more than twenty-two years after her disappearance.