SHAWNEE, Okla. — Sandy Rae disappeared from a bowling alley in September 1984. The 17-year-old Shawnee native is still missing.
It's been four decades, but her family's search for any clue about what happened to her hasn't ended.
Sandy and her younger sister Brandy Winkleman shared a special bond. "She was kind of like a second mom to me."
Today, Winkleman holds on to the simple things her big sister would do, "her sitting there braiding my hair and she used to sing this song 'Delta Dawn' to me all the time."
Her cousin Johnny Price said Sandy caught everyone's attention, "if she walked in a room, you could bet she was smiling."
That smile vanished on September 19, 1984.
Brandy remembers the day, "she left to go to the bowling alley to visit my cousin."
Sandy left the bowling alley and hasn't been seen since. Her mother called Shawnee Police Department, but they chose not to search for her or interview witnesses.
"They had considered her a runaway and um, that she had left on her own accord," Winkleman said.
Price said his cousin would never walk away from her family, "I would bet my life on it that she would never go away and never return."
Winkleman said her childhood ended the day her sister vanished. "That was my childhood, digging and searching through, you know, a lot of this, every creek bed, every bridge."
Now, the Shawnee Police Department is investigating Sandy Rae's disappearance as a cold case. If you have any information, contact them at 405-273-2121.
WATCH Sandy's full story FRIDAY on 2 News Oklahoma at 10 p.m.
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