![]() “She was sweet and kind and caring,” Ida said, describing her daughter. Stacie, who had been working as a receptionist at a local doctor’s office, had plans to attend the University of North Texas. “But he just told me, “She’s already earned this.’” “I asked, ‘What if she comes back and needs to finish the school year.’” Ida said. Ida told Dateline the principal at the time gave her Stacie’s cap and gown and diploma. The girls’ high school graduation came and went and there was still no sign of either one of them. I feel like I could have done more if I was there.”ĭetective Jeremy Chevallier, who has only had the case for the last few years, told Dateline that the original investigative team initially believed the girls were runaways, but later launched a missing persons investigation. “I feel like they dropped the ball on the case. “I wasn’t around, but I wish I had been,” Rich said. Susan’s brother, Rich Smalley, was away at college when he got the call from his mother that his younger sister was missing. “Anything that might have helped the case was long gone,” Ida said. The next weekend, some of Stacie’s friends took it out for a drive hoping to find someone who had seen the car the night the girls disappeared. Stacie’s family said her Mustang was never dusted for fingerprints or forensically searched. “But I don’t believe Stacie would have taken off like that.” “Investigators treated them as runaways at first - that they had extended their spring break and gone down to South Padre Island,” Ida said. Stefanie, who spoke to Dateline along with her mother, Ida, added that she remembers helping her family pass out missing person fliers in the days and weeks that followed.Ī search for the girls was launched by the Carrollton Police, but the families believe it was too late. Then I remember sitting in her room, waiting for her to come home. “My memories are spotty, but I remember that time being a shift in my family’s life,” Stefanie said. Stefanie was only six years old when her sister disappeared. The doors were locked, the convertible top was up and the girls’ jackets had been draped over a boombox in the backseat.Īccording to Stacie’s sister, Stefanie, Forest Lane was a cruising strip that was a popular hangout spot for teens in the area. Two days later, on Tuesday, March 22, Stacie’s Mustang was discovered in the parking of Webb Chapel Village on Forest Lane in Dallas, Texas. On Monday morning, Stacie and Susan were reported missing to the Carrollton Police Department. “I stayed up all night walking the floor,” Ida said. ![]() “We went out for dinner that evening and the first thing I did when I got home was check to see if she was home.”īut there was no sign of Stacie or her car. “I just kept thinking she’d walk in the door,” Ida told Dateline. ![]() When Stacie didn’t return home on Sunday, Ida began to worry. They were never seen or heard from again. It’s believed they were there just long enough to make those phone calls before venturing out again, Ida said. ![]() The girls had a curfew of midnight and made it home to Susan’s house in time to call Stacie’s mom to check in. Co-workers at the restaurant said Susan was there only a short time, talking with friends while Stacie waited in the car. They spent the evening shopping at Prestonwood Town Center and later visited friends in the nearby town of Arlington.Īround 11:30 p.m., the girls stopped at the Steak and Ale restaurant, where Susan worked as a waitress and hostess. Stacie picked up Susan in her pale yellow 1967 Ford Mustang convertible. I told her if she didn’t want to go, she didn’t have to. “She was hesitant about going to Susan’s that night. “I remember I had given Stacie a perm that day,” Ida said. Ida recalled her last day with her daughter. They planned to visit some friends and then have a sleepover at Susan’s house. They had just finished a week of spring break and were determined to enjoy their Saturday night in their hometown of Carrollton, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Stacie, who was 17 years old at the time, and her 18-year-old friend, Susan Smalley, were just a couple of months away from graduating from Newman Smith High School. “For a long time, I kept hoping she’d walk in the door,” Ida told Dateline. Stacie’s mother, Ida Madison, who is now 75 years old, has long accepted that her daughter is gone, but continues to hold on to hope for answers about what happened that night. And their families believe that’s when their lives ended. But back in the early morning hours of March 20, 1988, the two high school seniors disappeared without a trace. Her friend, Susan Smalley, would have hit that milestone last September. Stacie Madison would have turned 50 years old in June.
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