The vanishing Teens
Over 40 years ago, these two girls disappeared without a trace…
it was the end of the school year, 29 May 1971, and teenagers Pam Jackson and Cheryl Miller, both 17, planned to celebrate with their classmates.
After visiting Cheryl’s grandma in hospital, the girls, from Alcester, South Dakota, met up with male friends.
They planned to follow them to a local gravel pit for the party. But the girls never arrived.
The boys said they thought Cheryl and Pam had been following them in Cheryl’s beige 1960 Studebaker Lark. But the boys had missed a turning. And, when they turned back, they could no
longer see the Studebaker.
When Cheryl and Pam didn’t arrive, the boys assumed they’d changed their minds.
But the teenage girls were never seen again…
Friends insisted they hadn’t been drinking, didn’t do drugs.
Detectives conducted an extensive search, helped by friends and family, but Cheryl and Pam had vanished. Could they have run away? Their families insisted they weren’t the type.
Police suspected murder – but no evidence was found
Foul play?
Police suspected the girls may have been murdered – but not a shred of evidence was found.
For decades, their families were left to agonise over what may have befallen the girls.
The case confounded local law enforcement, haunted
the community.
Then, in
June 2004,
South Dakota’s cold-case unit launched a fresh investigation into the girls’ disappearance.
In the September, bones, clothing, newspaper articles, a purse, photographs and other items were found during a search of a Union County farm.
Police suspected local man David Lykken, who lived at the farm in 1971, may have been involved.
Lykken was a serial rapist, serving an unrelated 227-year sentence for rape and kidnap.
In August 2006, a fellow inmate told detectives Lykken had confessed to killing the girls.
By July 2007, he’d been charged with Pam’s and Cheryl’s murders.
A trial was set for March 2008. But there was no evidence linking the farm discoveries to the girls.
The case fell apart when it emerged Lykken’s alleged confession was a fake, and the murder charges were dropped.
Then, in September 2013, a fisherman spotted a car wheel sticking out of Brule Creek and, remembering the old case, he contacted the authorities.
When crews unearthed the mangled, upside-down wreckage, they discovered it was a corroded 1960 Studebaker Lark with a licence plate matching the car Cheryl was driving that night. The skeletal remains of two girls were in the front seats.
Truth at last
It seemed the car had come off the road into the creek, where it’d remained hidden until record flooding, followed by drought, had uncovered it.
The vehicle was in third gear, the lights had been on, and one of the tyres was damaged.
Detectives couldn’t tell how the car had ended up in the creek, but ruled out foul play.
There were alcohol containers in the car, the girls’ clothes were intact, the key was in the ignition.
Cheryl’s purse was found among the wreckage, along with her driving licence.
Forensics identified the remains as those of Cheryl Miller and Pam Jackson.
Locals said the creek bridge had been new in 1971, which might’ve confused the girls.
The 42-year mystery was solved. Cheryl and Pam had died in nothing more sinister than a car accident.
Tragically, their parents hadn’t lived to find out what’d happened to their daughters.
Pam’s father Oscar died, aged 102, just five days before the car was found.
But the girls’ remains could be returned to their families, and the case was closed.