Two teens who visited a state fair in Oklahoma went missing. Over four decades later, the case remains unsolved.
13-year-old Cinda L. Pallett and her friend, Charlotte Kinsey, 13, wanted to have fun at the Oklahoma State Fair to have some fun. So, on Sept. 26, 1981, both girls went to the fair on their own but never returned home. Family members and officers searched the premises but only found an identity badge along the fair’s midway.
"We all feel that she’s been drugged — hypnotized, something has been done to Charlotte," said Kinsey’s mother Pearla Peterson, according to KOKO News.
Upon further investigation, two young boys told the police a man had approached them, including Pallet and Kinsey, to help him unload stuffed animals from an off-site truck. Soon, authorities zeroed in on Donald Michael Corey, 36, a drifter who worked at the fair the same day the girls went missing due to the boys’ testimonies. Later, Corey was arrested for an unrelated charge and denied any involvement with the teens’ disappearance. In addition, Corey had an air-tight alibi working in Dallas on that fateful day.
"If I hadn't been able to prove I was in Dallas, where would I be? It's hard on a person ... to be in jail for something you didn't do," said Corey, according to The Oklahoman.
Meanwhile, four years passed when authorities zeroed in on another suspect, Royal Russell Long, a Wyoming resident, due to a similar modus operandi after two other girls, ages 15 and 12, were assaulted, with the younger one missing in 1985. He pleaded guilty to abduction and assault and was sentenced to two life sentences. Authorities were able to place Long at the fair the day Pallet and Kinsey went missing.
A year later, Long wrote to the Oklahoman and offered to solve the cold case for a price, but was turned down before his demise due to a heart attack on Sept. 23, 1993.
If anyone has information that could help solve this cold case, please contact the Oklahoma State Police at (405) 231-2121 or the Oklahoma City Police Department at (405) 297-1129.
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