Nearly thirty years after an 11-year-old girl disappeared from a small Illinois town, authorities have arrested a suspect and charged him with murder.
Trudy Appleby went missing on Aug. 21, 1996, near her home in Moline. She was last seen entering the passenger side of an older gray vehicle driven by an unknown man, Moline Police Chief Darren Gault said during an Aug. 13 press conference, which aired on local station KWQC TV 6 and was reviewed by PEOPLE.
Appleby had asked her father if she could go swimming with a friend on Campbell’s Island, but he declined. She went anyway and never returned.
On Aug. 13, Gault and Henry County State Attorney Catherine Runty announced that a grand jury in Henry County had indicted 50-year-old Jamison Fisher on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with Appleby’s death.
“For nearly three decades, this case has haunted not only Trudy’s family but every investigator who touched it, and our community,” Gault said. He added that Fisher had been publicly named as a person of interest in 2020.
Fisher, described by Gault as a family friend and “associate” of another suspect who died in 2014, allegedly strangled Appleby and concealed her death by hiding or moving her body, Runty stated.
Authorities have yet to recover Appleby’s remains, Gault said, noting that this portion of the investigation is ongoing.
The Moline Police Department served Fisher an arrest warrant in Scott County, Iowa, where he is currently held on unrelated charges, Gault said.
“This development is the result of tireless work by generations of investigators, unwavering support from our community, and new pieces of information that helped us complete a long-unfinished puzzle,” Gault said. “We never gave up.”
Fisher will not face kidnapping charges, as the statute of limitations has expired, Runty added.
“Today is not about celebration, it’s about a resolution, it’s about accountability, and most importantly, it’s about Trudy Appleby,” Gault said. “This arrest does not erase the pain, but it does bring us one step closer to closure. We hope it offers a measure of peace to her family and to all of those who have walked this journey with them.”
Fisher will remain in Iowa jail pending further court proceedings, Gault said. It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can comment on the case on his behalf.
