Today we have another missing person case. In 1981, a young woman was abducted from work, and she has never been seen or heard from since. This case was aired on Unsolved Mysteries in 1990, sadly Cynthia’s parents have died without knowing what happened to their daughter.
Cynthia Anderson was 20 years old, she lived with her parents, and her upbringing was a very structured religious life. She had prayer meetings, swimming and camping events, seasonal parties, and Sunday worship. She was described as being “quiet and obedient” and she was “the kind of girl who never made waves yet had lots of friends.”
Being an attractive young woman, Cynthia had a boyfriend who also was a member of the church she attended. Her parents had strict rules and during the summer her father stated that Cynthia had been “spending a lot of time on her face and becoming a bit of a debutante.”
Before she attended Bible College, the same one her boyfriend attended, Cynthia worked as a legal secretary. Due to the recent happenings at work her last day couldn’t come soon enough. Previously on a wall across from where she sat in the office, someone had spray painted, “I love you Cindy” in large letters followed by a smaller, “by GW” under it. Cindy didn’t know who GW was, but the message remained visible for over 6 months before it was covered up, but the message again returned in larger letters.
Other events were also happening at work, he was being harassed by anonymous phone calls with disturbing messages. As she had grown up in a rather sheltered home, these messages frightened her and she would have nightmares of being attacked by a man.
Her employer even installed an emergency buzzer at her desk. During the morning when she was alone, she kept the office door locked at all times. Sadly this wouldn’t be enough to protect her.
On August 4, 1981, Cynthia left for work at 8:30am, and she was seen at the office until approximately 9:45am. Around lunchtime, James Rabbitt, arrived and everything was as if it were a normal day, but there was no sign of Cynthia. Her keys and purse were missing, her car was still in the lot. Eerily, a romance novel that Cynthia was reading was left open at her desk to a page where the protagonist was abducted at knifepoint.
Of course the police investigated and there were some suspects: A caller who was phoning the office and the calls were enough to scare her. One of her clients had asked if there was anything wrong and she only said she had been receiving some odd calls. It’s unknown if these are connected to her disappearance.
“GW” The writer of the graffiti. There was a maintenance man who had keys to the office with those initials but there is no evidence that tied him to her disappearance. The author of the messages has been identified, but was not connected to her disappearance.
A month after she disappeared, police received a call from an anonymous tipster that said Cindy was being held against her will. They were nervous and refused to share their name. All they knew was it was a woman talking to them.
This person claimed Cindy was in the basement of a white house and that there were two houses side by side that were owned by the same family. The son was home, the rest of the family was out of town and he was holding Cindy hostage. No address was provided. When asked for more information she hung up. The caller would call again a few minutes later but when an investigator tried to listen in the call was disconnected and the tipster never called again. It’s unknown if the information was legitimate.
The case remains unsolved. But a new theory has been suggested.
In November 1995, a federal grand jury handed down a twenty-five count indictment against nine individuals charging them in a large drug distribution ring. One of these men was Richard Neller, who was Cindy’s employer. His friend Jose Rodriguez Jr, who has been identified as the ringleader of the drug ring, has allegedly admitted to killing Cynthia to send a message to Richard Neller. It’s also believed that she had heard conversations between the two men about the drug distributions.
Jose has never been charged in her disappearance, neither has Richard. They are both serving time for drug trafficking and remain suspects in the case.
Cynthia’s case remains unsolved, and sadly her mother passed away in 1992, her father in 2008.
Stay Curious my Friends
Amateur Connoisseur 