Trudy Appleby 'Puzzle' Solved? 29 Years After Illinois Girl Vanished, Police Have a Suspect By KC Baker

Nearly thirty years after an 11-year-old girl went missing from a small town in Illinois, police have arrested a suspect and charged him with murder.

Trudy Appleby vanished on Aug. 21, 1996, near her home in Moline, after she was seen getting into the passenger side of an older model gray vehicle driven by an unidentified man, Moline Police Chief Darren Gault said at an Aug. 13 press conference shown on local station KWQC TV 6 and reviewed by PEOPLE.

Appleby, Gault said, had asked if she could go swimming with a friend on Campbell’s Island, but her father said no. 

She went anyway and was never seen again.

On Aug. 13, Gault and Henry County State Attorney Catherine Runty announced that a grand jury in Henry County had indicted Jamison Fisher, 50, on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death for Appleby’s murder.

“For nearly three decades, this case has haunted not only Trudy’s family but every investigator who touched it, and our community,” said Gault, who noted that he publicly named Fisher as a person of interest in the case in 2020.

Fisher, according to Gault, was a family friend and “associate” of another suspect who died in 2014.

The indictment alleges that Fisher strangled Appleby and knowingly concealed her death by hiding or moving her body, Runty said.

Authorities still have not recovered Appleby’s remains, Gault said, adding that he could not comment on that part of the investigation because it remains ongoing.

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The Moline Police Department served Fisher an arrest warrant in Scott County, Iowa, where he is currently in custody 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,” said Gault. “We never gave up.”

Fisher will not be charged with kidnapping because the statute of limitations expired, Runty said.

“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 jail in Iowa pending further court proceedings there, Gault said.

It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can comment on this case on his behalf.