What Happened to Anthonette Cayedito?

Distinguishing Characteristics: Anthonette has dark-colored moles on her right cheek, nose, back, both hands and on her right knee. She has scars on one of her knees and on her lip. Her ears are pierced. Some agencies give her name as "Antoinette." Anthonette is of Navajo and Italian descent. She wears eyeglasses.

~Credit: The Charley Project

Details of Disappearance: Anthonette was last seen at her home in the 200 block of Arnold Street off of Route 66 in Gallup, New Mexico. Her mother, Penny came home late after a night of drinking with friends at a local bar. She kept Anthonette awake, talking and playing cards until around 3am, when the two went to bed in Penny's room.

Sometime between 3-4am, there was a knock on the front door. The main rule in the family home is to not answer the door, ever, unless Penny is with the girls. Even then, they ask who it is through the door before answering it. Penny told Anthonette to ignore the front door, that it was just her friend Roger.

It was reported that Roger yelled through the door "C'mon, Penny! Let me in!" Penny told Anthonette that he would go away.

A short time later, there was another knock on the front door. This time Penny told Anthonette to go see who it was. Anthonette's younger sister, Sadie, who was 7 at the time of her sister's disappearance, reported in an episode of Beyond the Case with Crystal Guitierrez and Louis Scarrlos that it was strange that Penny would ever tell Anthonette to answer the door, because all of the children knew better than to ever open the door. 

The youngest sister, Wendy reported five years later when she was 10 years old, that she remembered a man's voice yelling through the door, "Open the door! It's Uncle Joe." Wendy was supposedly standing behind Anthonette when this incident occurred. She then reported that when Anthonette opened the door, the man claiming to be Uncle Joe grabbed Anthonette.

Anthonette tried pulling away and she yelled and told him to let her go. The door was left ajar, and she saw the man forcing Anthonette into his older brown truck. 

Wendy then claimed to have gone back to bed because she was scared. She claimed the reason why she never mentioned it before was because she knew that her mom was upset about Anthonette being missing, she was afraid her mother would not believe her, and believed she would get in trouble. 

A neighbor came forward and reported seeing an older model brown truck with New Mexico license plates outside Anthonette's home early that morning. The witness couldn't describe the man or his truck in detail, but reported seeing a man get out of the truck and walk towards Anthonette's house. 

At the time. Anthonette's mother Penny fell back asleep after she told Anthonette to go check the front door. It was 30 minutes after the knock came and Anthonette went to check who was at the door, when Penny realized that Anthonette did not come back to bed. Instead of going to check to see where Anthonette was, she went back to sleep. 

It wasn't until around 7:00 A.M. when Penny went to wake up her children for church and realized that Anthonette was nowhere to be found, and the front door was slightly ajar. Penny searched the neighborhood until around 11:00 A.M. before notifying the police. The police, however, told her she had to wait eight hours before she could make an official missing person's report. 

It was initially thought that the abductor was one of Anthonette's uncles, however he has been interviewed and cleared as a suspect, regarding of Anthonette's disappearance. 

About a year after Anthonette disappeared, the Gallup Police Department got a phone call on the non-emergency line from someone claiming to be Anthonette and said she was in Albuquerque. Before they could trace the call, an angry sounding voice was heard shouting "Hey! Who said you could use the phone?" before hearing a scuffle, a scream, and the line going dead. It has been debated as to if the other voice was male or female, however, Penny listened to the recording, and believes the voice claiming to be Anthonette, was indeed Anthonette. 

There have been several "sightings" of Anthonette over the years, however, they are not 100% confirmed. 

Anthonette's case remains unsolved to this day. She was a fourth grader at Lincoln Elementary School at the time of her disappearance and is described as mature and responsible for her age. Investigators believe that foul play was involved in her disappearance and that she may be deceased. Although a report by Penny at one point mentioned that she sold Anthonette and one or two of her friends were involved.