An 8-year-old Georgia girl who vanished near her home in 1998 is still unaccounted for years later.
Shy’Kemmia “Shy Shy” Pate vanished after leaving her Unadilla home to play with a neighbor instead of going to a football game with her older sister as planned. Investigators told WALB that they believe Pate was taken by someone known to her family.
“I drove by the house and saw her sitting on the porch. She waved to me. I went up the street to get gas for the car, and when I returned, Shy Shy was not on the front porch,” Pate’s sister told the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Dooly County police started searching for Pate 24 hours after she vanished. A 5- and 10-mile search turned up no sign of her, despite the use of cadaver dogs and helicopters.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said foul play is suspected in Pate’s disappearance. Reports indicated that Pate has asthma and may require help breathing.
Pate was described as standing 4 feet, 4 inches tall, weighing 59 pounds, and having brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a neon green button-down Atlanta Braves jersey with red lettering, Levi’s jeans, white K-Swiss sneakers and a leg brace.
Pate would be 36 today. Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts should call the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office at 1-229-645-0920.
Pate’s case is being covered as part of CrimeOnline’s “Finding the Lost: Black and Missing” series, which will feature a missing Black person every day in February. The full series can be read here.
[Featured image: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children]