breezybidj
05-28-2008, 12:51 AM
http://media.thenewstribune.com/smedia/2008/01/11/01/482-nws0111_missing_p.highlight.prod_affiliate.5.jpg
Jan. 11--On a chilly afternoon 25 years ago, 21/2-year-old Wallace Guidroz went off to play with a young girl and her mother near the duck pond at Point Defiance Park.
As the kids played, the little boy's 25-year-old father, Stanley Guidroz, went for a walk at dusk and shared a beer with a man he took to be the dad of the little girl.
When they returned, Wallace was gone. The girl and the woman were nowhere to be seen. Soon so was the second man.
The curly-haired Fife youngster hasn't been seen since that day -- Jan. 10, 1983.
Despite exhaustive searches, Tacoma police found no traces of the boy, the girl or the woman. Composite sketches of the man and the woman were drawn and distributed but no one matching their descriptions was ever found.
Police detective Gene Miller wants to change that.
"That little boy deserves justice," said Miller, a homicide detective who took on the "cold" case about a month ago. "This case is screaming for an answer."
Wallace's disappearance has vexed the Police Department for years. His name frequently appears in lists detailing the unsolved cases of Pierce County's young missing children -- including Teekah Latrese Lewis and Lenoria E. Jones.
The Police Department hasn't had contact with Wallace's parents in years. Stanley Guidroz moved out of state and was last known to be living in Louisiana. He couldn't be found by The News Tribune. The boy's mother died in 1995 at age 37, according to Social Security death records.
Miller has studied the investigation into the boy's disappearance and reviewed hundreds of pages of reports. The suspicious circumstances led Miller to think the boy might have been the victim of a homicide.
With the anniversary of Wallace's disappearance, Miller is hoping someone will come forward to break the 25-year-old mystery.
"This is a case where our only hope is that by reminding the community it may jog somebody's memory or get someone who is up to this point been unwilling" to come forward, Miller said recently.
GONE FISHING, GONE MISSING
Stanley Guidroz told police what happened that Monday.
He and his son went fishing with a husband and a wife who were family friends from about 2 to 2:30 p.m. They put their lines into Commencement Bay near the old Point Defiance Boathouse.
After about two hours, Wallace, dressed in a knitted skull cap, a dark blue down jacket, purple corduroy overalls and brown cowboy boots, got cold and wanted to leave.
"When they leave that area, it was prior to darkness," Miller said.
After saying goodbye to their fishing partners, father and son decided to walk around the duck pond. As they neared the pond about 4:30 p.m., Wallace spotted a little girl he didn't know who was about his age.
Wallace wanted to play with the girl, so his dad left him with her and a woman he thought was her mother. Meanwhile, Stanley Guidroz started to walk around the pond with a man he believed was the girl's father.
The other man shared a beer with the elder Guidroz and the two talked about life as they strolled nearby.
"I could see the kids playing," Guidroz told The News Tribune at the time. "I guess I felt secure. When I turned around to look for the child, he was gone."
Twenty-five to 40 minutes later, Guidroz and the man returned to where Wallace had been playing.
His son, the girl and the woman were gone. The two men split up to search for Wallace. The other man went in a different direction from Guidroz and vanished.
Stanley Guidroz searched for about two hours and then, at 7:42 p.m., called police from a nearby pay phone at the Goldfish Tavern and reported his son missing. Within 20 minutes, police and volunteers were searching for the little boy.
"He's afraid of the dark," Guidroz told the newspaper within hours of his son's disappearance. "I'm just praying they'll find him."
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Wallace Guidroz is asked to call Tacoma police detective Gene Miller at 253-591-5674.
The male person of interest was described as white, in his late 20s to early 30s and about 6 feet tall with a medium build. He had shoulder-length, sandy brown hair, a mustache and a beard. He wore a baseball cap.
The female person of interest was described as white, in her early to mid-20s, 5 feet 2 and 115 to 120 pounds. She had light blond hair that fell below her shoulders and distinctively long eyelashes
http://media.thenewstribune.com/smedia/2008/01/11/01/186-nws0111_missing_g.highlight.prod_affiliate.5.jpg
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/crime/story/251640.html
Jan. 11--On a chilly afternoon 25 years ago, 21/2-year-old Wallace Guidroz went off to play with a young girl and her mother near the duck pond at Point Defiance Park.
As the kids played, the little boy's 25-year-old father, Stanley Guidroz, went for a walk at dusk and shared a beer with a man he took to be the dad of the little girl.
When they returned, Wallace was gone. The girl and the woman were nowhere to be seen. Soon so was the second man.
The curly-haired Fife youngster hasn't been seen since that day -- Jan. 10, 1983.
Despite exhaustive searches, Tacoma police found no traces of the boy, the girl or the woman. Composite sketches of the man and the woman were drawn and distributed but no one matching their descriptions was ever found.
Police detective Gene Miller wants to change that.
"That little boy deserves justice," said Miller, a homicide detective who took on the "cold" case about a month ago. "This case is screaming for an answer."
Wallace's disappearance has vexed the Police Department for years. His name frequently appears in lists detailing the unsolved cases of Pierce County's young missing children -- including Teekah Latrese Lewis and Lenoria E. Jones.
The Police Department hasn't had contact with Wallace's parents in years. Stanley Guidroz moved out of state and was last known to be living in Louisiana. He couldn't be found by The News Tribune. The boy's mother died in 1995 at age 37, according to Social Security death records.
Miller has studied the investigation into the boy's disappearance and reviewed hundreds of pages of reports. The suspicious circumstances led Miller to think the boy might have been the victim of a homicide.
With the anniversary of Wallace's disappearance, Miller is hoping someone will come forward to break the 25-year-old mystery.
"This is a case where our only hope is that by reminding the community it may jog somebody's memory or get someone who is up to this point been unwilling" to come forward, Miller said recently.
GONE FISHING, GONE MISSING
Stanley Guidroz told police what happened that Monday.
He and his son went fishing with a husband and a wife who were family friends from about 2 to 2:30 p.m. They put their lines into Commencement Bay near the old Point Defiance Boathouse.
After about two hours, Wallace, dressed in a knitted skull cap, a dark blue down jacket, purple corduroy overalls and brown cowboy boots, got cold and wanted to leave.
"When they leave that area, it was prior to darkness," Miller said.
After saying goodbye to their fishing partners, father and son decided to walk around the duck pond. As they neared the pond about 4:30 p.m., Wallace spotted a little girl he didn't know who was about his age.
Wallace wanted to play with the girl, so his dad left him with her and a woman he thought was her mother. Meanwhile, Stanley Guidroz started to walk around the pond with a man he believed was the girl's father.
The other man shared a beer with the elder Guidroz and the two talked about life as they strolled nearby.
"I could see the kids playing," Guidroz told The News Tribune at the time. "I guess I felt secure. When I turned around to look for the child, he was gone."
Twenty-five to 40 minutes later, Guidroz and the man returned to where Wallace had been playing.
His son, the girl and the woman were gone. The two men split up to search for Wallace. The other man went in a different direction from Guidroz and vanished.
Stanley Guidroz searched for about two hours and then, at 7:42 p.m., called police from a nearby pay phone at the Goldfish Tavern and reported his son missing. Within 20 minutes, police and volunteers were searching for the little boy.
"He's afraid of the dark," Guidroz told the newspaper within hours of his son's disappearance. "I'm just praying they'll find him."
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Wallace Guidroz is asked to call Tacoma police detective Gene Miller at 253-591-5674.
The male person of interest was described as white, in his late 20s to early 30s and about 6 feet tall with a medium build. He had shoulder-length, sandy brown hair, a mustache and a beard. He wore a baseball cap.
The female person of interest was described as white, in her early to mid-20s, 5 feet 2 and 115 to 120 pounds. She had light blond hair that fell below her shoulders and distinctively long eyelashes
http://media.thenewstribune.com/smedia/2008/01/11/01/186-nws0111_missing_g.highlight.prod_affiliate.5.jpg
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/crime/story/251640.html