Girl missing since 1969 believed killed

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Registered: 03-23-2003
Girl missing since 1969 believed killed
3
Tue, 08-31-2004 - 6:50pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Daughter's%20Disappearance


Tuesday, August 31, 2004 · Last updated 11:51 a.m. PT


Girl missing since 1969 believed killed


By BEN FOX
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Three-year-old Michelle Pulsifer was never seen again after her family got in their car and left California 35 years ago. But no one ever filed a missing person report, prosecutors say.


Now, authorities will search for the girl's body, and her mother and an Illinois man have been arrested for investigation of murdering her.


The Orange County district attorney's office said Monday it spent a year looking into the case after a private investigator hired by the girl's aunt told them he could find no public record of her after July 4, 1969.


Days after Michelle Pulsifer was last seen, her family suddenly moved to Illinois from their home south of Los Angeles. Her mother, Donna J. Prentice, and Prentice's former boyfriend, James Michael Kent, insist she was left with a relative in California, investigators say.


"We've concluded that Michelle never left that home in Huntington Beach alive," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said.


"A search for her body is under way," Rackauckas said. He declined to reveal where the search is taking place, or to discuss evidence investigators believe links the pair to the girl's disappearance.


Prentice, 57, of Genoa, Wis., was arrested Friday in Wisconsin. She refused to waive extradition to California on Monday, and will remain in custody pending a Sept. 22 hearing.


Kent, 62, of Lakemoor, Ill., was arrested last Wednesday in Illinois. He waived extradition and was being held in the Orange County jail on $1 million bail.


Before his extradition to California, Kent made a videotaped confession, telling authorities he did not kill the girl but helped bury her body in a mountain canyon, Detective Sgt. John Byrne of the Lake County (Ill.) Sheriff's Department told the Chicago Tribune.


Byrne did not immediate return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking further detail. The Orange County district attorney's office declined to comment on the report, saying the investigation is at a sensitive point and it would be inappropriate to disclose details about the possible location of the body.


Michelle's brother, Richard Pulsifer Jr., said he is relieved at the arrests.


"A lot of questions, hopefully, will be answered and it will all be resolved," Pulsifer, 41, said. "In the past, we've always hit dead ends."


Pulsifer was 6 when he last saw his sister.


"The very last conversation I had with her was when she came into my room and asked me to hide her," he said. He hid her under the bed covers but their mother came and got the girl.


Within days of that July 1969 incident, the family moved to Illinois. There was one other child in the house, Kent's 6-year-old son from a previous relationship.


"They told the children there was not enough room in the car for Michelle. Instead, Michelle would stay with relatives in California," Rackauckas said. "No missing person report was filed and no one talked about Michelle again."


Michelle's brother said he had little contact with his mother over the years and never got solid answers when he asked about his sister.


In 2001, Michelle's aunt, Ann Friedman, hired a private attorney who determined there was no sign of the girl's existence after the couple's move: No school records, work history, marriage license or death certificate.


Kent has not been assigned a lawyer by the Orange County public defender's office. Prentice had obtained an attorney, Anthony Delyea, but he did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 8:49am
My DH was talking about this case. How sad. One has to wonder what went on that would provoke

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 4:32pm
Update: Police: Man claims he buried girl
Two charged with 1969 murder of a 3-year-old

A man arrested on charges he helped kill a 3-year-old girl more than three decades ago told authorities he buried the body in California before the family abruptly moved out of state, a detective said Tuesday.


James Michael Kent, 62, said in a videotaped statement last week that Michelle Pulsifer was buried in Silverado Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains, according to Detective Sgt. John Byrne of Lake County, Illinois.


Kent and Michelle's mother, Donna J. Prentice, 57, have been charged with murdering the child.


Byrne said Kent did not admit to killing Michelle but admitted burying the girl.


"He was relieved ... It seemed like it was bothering him for a very long time," Byrne said.


Brother: Sister asked him to hide her

Days after Michelle was last seen, her family suddenly moved to Illinois from their home south of Los Angeles. Both Kent and Prentice, who were living together at the time, have said the girl was left with a relative in California.


But prosecutors spent a year looking into the case after a private investigator hired by the girl's aunt told them he could find no public record of her after July 4, 1969.


Orange County officials have said they were searching for Michelle's body, but declined to say where.


Michelle's brother, 41-year-old Richard Pulsifer Jr., said he last saw his sister when he was 6 and she asked him to hide her. He hid Michelle under the bed covers, but their mother came and got her.


When the family moved to Illinois, officials said Pulsifer was told there was not enough room in the car for Michelle.


"No missing person report was filed and no one talked about Michelle again," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said.


Prentice was arrested Friday in Wisconsin. She refused to waive extradition to California and will remain in custody pending a September 22 hearing.


Her attorney, Anthony Delyea, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.


Kent, of Lakemoor, Illinois, was arrested when he showed up in court on Friday to answer a charge of driving with a suspended license. He had 17 previous arrests and was convicted four times of charges that include assault and domestic violence, Byrne said.


He was being held in the Orange County jail on $1 million bail and had not yet been assigned an attorney.










story.girl.ap.jpg
Three-year-old Michelle Pulsifer, shown in this undated family photo, disappeared 35 years ago.





















 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 6:49pm
I will never, never, never understand...