Toya Hill (Missing Person)

On an early spring evening in 1982, 8 year old Toya Hill went out to play in front of her family's apartment block in south eastern Baltimore.  At some point she wandered to a local grocery store to buy some sweets. Toya never returned  home and it was as if the thrid grader had walked off the face of earth.  No sign could be found and the police were baffled.  Toya's mother Annette had her own suspicions regarding what may have happened to her daughter and set about devising a plan to  find the truth.

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Toya Hill

This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen.

Hi it's John here, Just a quick message to say I have been away in West Wales so this week's episode is a little shorter than usual. It’s a case that gets very little exposure that I have been waiting for the opportunity to share as I knew the script for the episode would not be the usual 6-7000+ words. I have been researching this case for quite a while and I’ve exhausted all the sources. I really feel like this story deserves an airing as it's one of the most sad and perplexing cases I’ve covered.

During the early 1980s, at any one time the Baltimore Police Department would be working around 400 missing persons cases with 60% of them being juveniles. They would receive around 10 phone calls a day from worried parents wanting to report a child missing. On receiving the initial phone call, an officer would be dispatched to go and interview the parents or carers of the child. They would ask a standard set of questions about their home and school life in order to fill out a report. Often by the time the police officer returned to the station and the report was filed the child had turned up safe and well.

In some circumstances the child could not be found. In the vast majority of cases this was either because the child had run away (at times with good reason, as they fled abuse at home) or due to an abduction from a non-custodial parent. 

There were a handful of incidents that met nether criteria. In these rare instances the child simply vanished and the police were left with very little to go on. In these cases foul play was often suspected but could never be proved. 

Sgt Robert L Dean was a police officer for 25 years. For ten of those years he headed up the Baltimore Police Department’s missing persons unit. A 2011 article in the Baltimore Sun details some of the cases the then retired officer had worked on. Today's episode centres on the first case he dealt with when taking over the missing persons unit. It is a baffling scenario which gets very little coverage. It is one of several instances of young black girls who disappeared in Baltimore or from other nearby towns during the late 1970’s and 1980s. 

Toya Hill lived with her mother Annette, 29, and three siblings in the La Fayette, Parkins Homes Housing project on the 200 block of South Spring Street in Southeast Baltimore, Maryland. Toya was the third born child. Her brother was 13 and older sister 10. The younger sister was 3. 

In the early spring of 1982 the eight year old little girl could hardly withhold her excitement. In three days her mother was getting married to her fiance John, and Toya was going to be a flower girl. Not only that, but Annette had promised Toya she could have her first tiny sip of champagne as part of the wedding celebrations.

On Wednesday March 24th 1982 Toya came home from school as normal. Her mother gave her a snack to eat and Toya asked if she could play outside in the spring air. Annette agreed to the request and the happy 8 year old left, leaving her mother chatting to a friend in the kitchen.  

Annette had been busy all week with last minute preparations for the big day. That evening she  had one final appointment for a dress fitting. She left the family home at 6.15pm and must have assumed that Toya was still  playing with friends in the shared courtyard at the front of the apartment block. This was not the case.

Unbeknown to Annette, forty five minutes before this, Toya had told her sister she was going to walk to the local grocery store to buy some sweets. This was something she was expressly forbidden to do on her own. She was only allowed to go with a family member or at least 2 or 3 friends. This act of disobedience was very out of character for Toya and her mother later said she had never had reason to discipline her daughter before. A year later the Baltimore Sun reported on March 27th 1983 that Toya’s sister later told her mother that Toya said she was going to the shop specifcially because it had been prohibited. Was this an act of premature teenage rebellion by Toya? Or was there more to it?

This is where things get a little complicated. One of the difficulties in researching and writing this episode has been working out exactly what happened after Toya was playing in the courtyard outside the family apartment. Most reports seem to suggest that Toya set off to buy the sweets on her own while a minority of others offer a different angle.

An article from the Baltimore Evening Sun on 3rd April 1982 states her friends saw a man approach Toya and offer to buy her sweets. The man was said to be known by Toya. According to this report, her friends followed as Toya and the man walked about a block to Yound’s groceries on the corner of Caroline and Bank Streets. It seems the friends followed in the hope that Toya would share her sweets with them. Just as a note, most reports state the location of the store as being on Gough and South Caroline Street as opposed to Caroline and Bank street. These two different locations for the store are not far apart. Bank Street is a little closer to Toya’s home. Yet another confusing aspect to the narrative. As an aside, despite reading numerous newspaper articles I had missed this discrepancy and was first made aware of it when watching the excellent  mini- documentary ”What happened to Toya Hill? Missing since 1982”. The film is a collaboration between Tony 2 Times TV and The Baltimore Way. A link is listed in the sources.

An article in the Baltimore Sun from March 1983 (that’s a  year later) states that Toya briefly stopped at a playground on the way to the store and chatted to a girl friend. There is no mention that a man was with the 8 year old at this point. The same piece states that the journey from her apartment block to the store was two blocks. Perhaps she walked about a block and then met the man on the way. She may have told him where she was headed and he offered to buy the sweets for her.

All reports are unanimous in saying that Toya was later seen talking with two men near the grocery store. Some indicate that this meeting occurred in the store car park. One of the men was known to Toya, I will get into more detail about who this man was later. The second man was a friend of the first man. It was the second man who witnesses said went inside the shop with Toya.

The witnesses were Toya’s friends who had journeyed behind her to the shop. They waited outside for her to come back out. After a few minutes of waiting the small group grew bored and slowly headed back to the apartment courtyard to continue playing.  Other articles are more ambiguous about what the witnesses saw such as a piece in the Baltimore Sun from 2011. Here it says the friends simply  saw Toya being escorted by the man across the road towards the shop. 

Some modern versions of the events of that evening, including the information shared on the Doe project website, say there is no evidence that Toya ever made it into the store. Though this contradicts contemporary reports which say police were sure she had made it inside the shop. More uncertainty and doubt. What we do know for a fact is Toya never returned home following her journey to the store and what happened to the third grader during the rest of that evening and thereafter remains unknown.

Persons Unknown is a true crime podcast dedicated to unsolved murders and missing persons cases from all over the world.

I’m John, I live in Wales, UK and I research, write and produce this podcast. New episodes are released every other Monday. 

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Toya Katrina Hill was born on August 24th 1973. At the time she vanished she was just over 8 and a half years old. She stood at 4’0'' or 122 cm and weighed 80 lbs or 36kg. Toya was a third grader at City Springs Elementary. There she had won numerous trophies for her excellent attendance and for participating in various activities. Toya is described as quiet and well behaved. She had black hair and brown eyes and had a deep dimple on her left cheek. She also had a prominent chipped front tooth. Toya normally wore glasses but she did not have them with her when she was last seen. The evening she disappeared Toya’s clothes consisted of a blue jacket, a blue and orange striped top and blue jeans.

When Annette returned from her dress fitting at 7.30pm she found the apartment quiet and empty. She thought Toya was likely with one of her other daughters playing in a neighbour’s apartment. After a little while it became apparent that no-one knew where Toya was. Annette went outside and asked some local children playing in the street to go and look for her daughter. When no sign of Toya was found, Annette telephoned the police. 

Based on witnesses accounts by the children who had been playing with Toya, one of the men seen talking to Toya outside the shop was identified as Annette's former boyfriend. The other man was his friend. After hearing this information from the children Anette immediately believed her ex was involved in her daughter's disappearance. Apparently even before this Annette had  wondered if he had something to do with it. 

Annette believed her ex-boyfriend had taken Toya to force the cancellation of her approaching wedding to fiance John, and ultimately to rekindle their former relationship. Kidnapping a child seems an odd way to win back someone's affection but Annette was convinced this was his plan. She called her ex the day after Toya went missing and left an answer phone message. He rang her back 24 hours later and said he did not have Toya. Annette was not convinced and for this reason she decided to go ahead with the wedding. She wanted to prove to her ex-boyfriend it was definitely over between them. Annette hoped this would resolve the matter once and for all and he would return Toya to her. 

Saturday March 27th Annette married John in a service at the Pentecostal Baptist Church on Poplar Grove and Baker Street. It was not a joyous occasion and during the service Annette broke down. No champagne was consumed and not one of her wedding gifts was opened. Annette wanted to wait until all the family could all be together, including Toya, before she would allow herself to celebrate.

Annette’s expectation that Toya would be returned to her following the wedding did not materialise, though she was still convinced her ex was involved. The police did look into both men said to have been seen with Toya near the store. Within nine days of the disappearance both men had been interviewed on twelve separate occasions but police found no indication they were involved. In fact as early as March 29th, just five days after Toya was last seen, Police Sergeant Crawford Blackmon of the Southeastern District declared the men were not considered suspects in the case at that time. One of the men did admit to buying sweets for Toya but said he had left the shop premises  before the little girl. What is most perplexing is that one of the owners of the story Yound Lee (spelled YOUND LEE) said she didn't even remember seeing Toya come into the shop that evening. 

Friends held a disco and raised a $1500 reward for information leading to the missing girl’s whereabouts. The investigation carried on in earnest. Over the next month or so law enforcement agencies from across the metropolitan area as well as community groups and members of the general public all got involved in searching the neighbourhood for Toya. All the usual things were done, flyers were handed out and hundreds of doors were knocked. I am not sure how much contact Toya had with her father but he was looked into as a possible abductor but it was quickly determined he had nothing to do with it. Altogether at least 150 people were interviewed in connection with the investigation but no suspects materialised. Police were none the wiser in terms of working out what had happened after Toya reached the grocery store.

Toya’s disappearance was not listed as an abduction as no witnesses had seen her get into a car or be led away on foot. On the other hand police recognised there was zero evidence that the 8 year old had run away. They feared foul play but had no concrete evidence to prove their suspicion. 

The days were interminable for Annette and her three other children as they all struggled to come to terms with what had happened. Toya’s two sisters would be fine one minute and then burst into tears when feelings of loss and fear would suddenly overwhelm them. Toya’s older brother suffered in silence and tried to keep his feelings inside. His mother believed that this was not healthy for him but everyone was trying to get through this a day at a time.

Over the next 12 months Annette would often find pictures and toys that her children would place under Toya’s pillows. For a whole year following Toya’s disappearance, Annette would set a place at the dinner table for her missing daughter. She eventually had to stop this ritual as it upset the other three children. 

Unsolved cases take a huge toll on the family of the victim. Sandra Bloom, a psychiatrist from Philadelphia, says the trauma from unsolved cases is very difficult for people to move past. This feeling is magnified when the person is missing with no news of what has happened to them, particularly when a child is involved. 

Speaking at the time of the one year anniversary of Toya’s disappearance, Sergeant Mike Bass of the Baltimore Police told the Baltimore Sun that the investigating team had exhausted every lead. They had even chased up outlandish and remote theories but nothing had been found. Hundreds of hours of staff time had been spent on the case. They had conducted numerous interviews with Toya’s friends who were playing with her that evening but none of the information obtained was able to break the case. Polygraph tests had been carried out on adults known by Toya and her family. They had all been passed with flying colours. Toya’s case and the plight of Annette remained a constant in the mind of Sgt Robert Dean of the Missing Persons unit. He carried the file around wherever he went so it was always at hand to work on when the opportunity arose.  

Sadly, the investigation slowly began to grind to a halt. Annette was left trying to cope with the situation on her own while at the same time trying to remain positive for her other children. Annette would not allow herself to believe that Toya was dead. She clung to the theory that Toya was being held by someone but they were too scared to let her go because of the amount of time that had now passed. Whenever Annette was out walking along the street or travelling by bus she kept a constant look out for her lost daughter. 

Eventually Annette joined an organisation called Child Find which was active across the country bringing together parents of missing children. In a time before the internet the network  attempted to publicise the cases by sharing photos and descriptions through leaflets and newsletters. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly Annette's marriage to John did not work out and she filed for divorce in the summer of 1983. The divorce went through a year later. Despite the police dismissing her former boyfriend as a suspect, Annette’s own private reservations and suspicions about him had never gone away. Following her divorce from John, Annette hatched a plan to find out once and for all what had happened to Toya. 

Annette next took a decision, which on the surface seems strange. The single mother began dating her ex-boyfriend in an attempt to elicit information from him about her missing daughter. This relationship culminated in the pair getting married. Annette said in an interview with the Baltimore Sun in 2011 that the only reason for the marriage was to find out news about Toya. I am not sure exactly when this marriage occurred but I believe it was in the mid-1980’s. The marriage only lasted a matter of months. During that time the man remained steadfast in his denials of knowing anything about what had happened to Toya. Annette was left living in a netherworld between hope and grief. 

Over the years there have been a couple of instances where remains have been found and there has been speculation over whether they could belong to Toya. 

11 months after Toya vanished, on February 28th 1983 two men came across a nightmarish discovery in the city of St Louis Missouri. This location is just over a 12 hour drive from Baltimore, Maryland. The men were on the scrounge for scrap metal, specifically a pipe to help fix a broken car. The pair thought they would chance their luck by looking around inside an abandoned Victorian apartment building at 5635 Clemens Avenue. They made their way down to the old furnace room in the basement of the property. When one of them used a cigarette lighter to get a better look at the large room, the flickering flame illuminated an awful sight. It was the headless body of a young black female. The body lay in the prone position with the hands bound behind the back with red and white nylon rope. The upper body was clothed in a yellow sweater, which had had the labels cut out. The lower half was naked. The men immediately went for help.  

When detectives arrived they suspected that the body was likely a drug addict or possibly that of a woman working as a sex worker. They realised on closer inspection that it was in fact the body of a prepubescent child. A search was carried out to recover the  head but there was no sign or indication where it was. It had never been found. 

An autopsy found the girl was likely aged between 8 and 11 years old. She was 4ft 10 - 5ft 4  147-162 cm and weighed 61-70 lbs, 27-31kg. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled before being decapitated with a large bladed knife. Forensic tests determined that the girl was likely killed around five days before the body was discovered.

 There were no signs of previous abuse, such as bruises or scars and she appeared well nourished, although her stomach was empty at time of death. Traces of green paint were found in the marks left by the knife. There were no other distinguishing features but two coats of red nail polish were on her fingernails. It is often reported that medical examination of the body concluded that the girl may have suffered from spina bifida occulta (this is mildest form of the condition that affects the spine) but the Doe network details that this is a false claim.

Investigators speculated that the girl came from outside Missouri as no missing girls of that age had been reported. Adverts were put in black newspapers across the country but her identity remained a mystery. The little girl became known as the St Louis Jane Doe, Little Jane Doe or by the name “Hope” or “Precious Hope”. 

There is an obvious height difference between Toya, who was said to have been 4ft, 122 cm when she vanished and “Hope”. However, over the years it was speculated that “Hope” could be Toya. Height estimates are notoriously inaccurate . If Hope was Toya it would mean that she had been held captive for 11 months. Unikey but not impossible and it would explain some of, though not all of the height discrepancy. 

In 1983 there was no hard and fast way of proving whether or not this was Toya, as obviously there were no dental records for “Hope”. After initially not being able to locate the cemetery plot where the remains were buried, in 2013 Hope’s remains were dug up in order to obtain a DNA sample. This was compared to Annette’s DNA. There was no link and according to NameUs Toya Hill has been officially ruled out as being Hope or the St Louis Jane Doe. Hope is now believed to be the victim of child killer Vernon Brown. He was executed in 2005 for the murders of 9 year old Janet Perkins and 19 year old Synetta Ford though he is a suspected serial killer with many more unconfirmed victims. 

In the late 2000s the remains of a woman were found that police believed could be Toya. Articles say the remains belonged to a woman rather than a child but the age was said to correspond with Toya. It is unclear what made the police suspect this could be Toya. Regardless it turned out to be a dead end. DNA comparisons with samples taken from Annette proved negative. It was not Toya. 

Annette eventually moved from South Spring Street to nearby Edgewood which is about a 15 minute drive west. There has been next to no new information about the case or interviews from Annette over the last decade. In 2011 Annette  was running a day care centre from her home and by that time her three other children had grown up and had families of their own. Annette had 15 grandchildren. The passage of time had done little to soften the blow of losing her daughter. Toya remained close in her thoughts. She still kept a box in her wardrobe of drawings made by Toya and other of her personal possessions. Hearing about missing children on the news always brought the dark memories flooding back. At this time Annette was still desperately hoping Toya was still out there somewhere, but if this was so she wondered why her daughter hadn't tried to contact her.

Annette heard through friends that her ex-husband, the man she married purely to obtain information about Toya, died sometime in the mid 2000s. I do not know what became of his friend who was said by some witnesses to have gone into the store with Toya.

Just a week or so after Toya vanished, Sgt Robert Dean of the Baltimore Police Missing Persons unit told the Baltimore Sun that if someone told him that Toya had gone to Mars he'd have as much evidence for that as any other theory. Over four decades later the same can be said. Please share Toya’s story, so perhaps Annette and her other children can finally find out what happened.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Toya Hill you can contact the Baltimore Police Department on 410-396-2334. 

Sources

https://tinyurl.com/4eekfw2t