Detectives hoping for new leads in cold case
Christy Luna’s file has remained open, unsolved for 39 years
Her face was pictured on the side of milk cartons. A billboard years later. And as the decades have passed, her pictures and story have been spread on social media and in a documentary, all with the hopes that whoever knows what happened to Marjorie “Christy” Luna on May 27, 1984, would come forward.
A breakthrough still hasn't come. Saturday marks 39 years since Christy went missing. She was 8 years old when she left her Greenacres home in the 200 block of Broward Avenue and walked barefoot to a corner store within eyesight of her street to buy cat food and never came back.
Possible suspects were identified but never charged. The most credible tip received by Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives came in 2019. It led them to dig up a field near Christy's home, but all that was uncovered were animal bones. No sign of Christy.
The Sheriff 's Office produced a 20-minute documentary a few years ago, featuring Det. Bill Springer, who was one of the original detectives on the case. In a new video shared Friday on Facebook, Springer said he believes someone knows what happened to Christy.
“They don't want to talk about it because it's a close family relative or it's somebody that they really know, and they don't want to destroy a family,” Springer said. “But you have to do the right thing because this person took Christy and destroyed a family.”
It is unknown whether the Sheriff 's Office has investigated any other credible tips since the dig with Florida Gulf Coast University anthropologists in August 2019. The Sheriff 's Office did not, and still has not, released details about what the tip was or who it came from.
It is a familiar fact now that Christy was at the corner store that afternoon between 2:30 and 3 p.m.
An issue with the case, Springer said in the documentary, is that detectives don’t know if she walked directly to the store.
Walking through now-fenced-in yards, Springer in the documentary recalled that Christy had a friend who lived on a nearby street whose home she would have been able to easily walk to through the open yards, back when there were no fences.
And along that path, Christy would have come upon a house where a man lived who was later arrested in Virginia in 2010 for child molestation.
The man is serving a life sentence in Virginia, Springer said in the documentary, and the house since has been torn down.
When detectives interviewed him in 2010, he denied ever knowing Christy. In a second interview, he changed his story. He said his wife babysat Christy’s best friend in 1984. His wife told detectives that her husband saw Christy and her friend playing outside one day before the girl’s disappearance and said, “One of these days, one of these girls is going to disappear,” Springer said.
After Christy disappeared, the man said they would never find her, Springer said, and that “she’s off of Alligator Alley.” Whether detectives investigated that area, the Sheriff ’s Office has not said.
Early on after Christy’s disappearance, detectives investigated several men, including brothers Chuck and Willis Rambo who lived a few houses up from Christy. In their investigation, detectives spoke to a 6-year-old girl who was a friend of Christy who said the Rambo brothers had molested her and that Christy had been at the brothers’ home with her in the past.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in June 1984 that a Belk’s General Store clerk told police she had seen Charles Rambo giving Christy money at the corner store once before. Other newspaper reports said Willis Rambo told police Christy and her friend had played in the men’s living room on multiple occasions.
Both of the brothers were arrested, and detectives searched the Rambos’ home and property, but no leads about Christy were found, Springer said in the documentary. The Rambos denied any involvement in her disappearance.
The brothers ultimately pleaded guilty to lesser charges and were out of jail after a few months, placed on probation for 10 years, according to the documentary. Willis Rambo was later sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting his two stepdaughters.
Charles Rambo now lives in Tennessee. His younger brother Willis Rambo, 65, has been incarcerated at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution since 1993.
Another possible suspect was a man named Victor George Wonyetye who moved to Florida from New Hampshire in 1984. He attended a party in Christy’s neighborhood the day she vanished.
The Miami Herald reported in December 1984 that Wonyetye worked as a groundskeeper at the Wellington Golf Course and was questioned about Christy’s disappearance. He was arrested just a few weeks before Christy vanished on a misdemeanor charge of night prowling after he was caught peering through windows in Lake Worth, The Palm Beach Post reported in July 1991.
He moved back to New Hampshire after spending 30 days in jail after the Lake Worth arrest, the Post reported. Six months after Christy vanished, 8-yearold Tammy Belanger went missing in Exeter, N.H.
Wonyetye was a suspect in that case. Fosters Daily Democrat, a newspaper covering counties in New Hampshire and Maine, reported in 2019 that Tammy was last seen walking to school and that Wonyetye did not show up for work that day.
Inmates at a New Hampshire jail where Wonyetye was incarcerated said he told them he raped and killed two girls, the Sun Sentinel reported in 2004.
After serving time in prison in both New Hampshire and Florida, Wonyetye died of natural causes years ago, Springer said in the documentary.
Things have changed since 1984, when the world didn’t have the power of social media at its fingertips. The Sheriff’s Office in 2017 launched a social media campaign where they posted more than 50 tweets as if they were written by Christy, documenting the last days anyone would see her, in an effort to spread her story nationally.
“Love going to Belk’s store, it’s only 6 houses down and everyone knows me. They have my favorite arcade game #PACMAN! #Justice4Luna,” one tweet said.
“No one knows what happened to me, or at least no one has said anything for 33 years, but it’s never too late to speak up. #Justice4Luna,” another said.
Springer said at a news conference in 2017 alongside Christy’s mother, Jennie Johnson, that the campaign resulted in new leads and that he was looking to speak with anyone who may have been victims of attempted abduction in the early 1980s.
Authorities ask anyone with information about Christy’s case to call Springer at 561-688-4013, Crime Stoppers at 1-800458-8477 or submit an anonymous tip on the PBSO app using the “See Something” feature.