In August of 1981, Cynthia Jane Anderson was preparing for a new chapter in her life. The 20 year old had been raised in a very religious household of Christian Fundamentalists, following a schedule packed with church prayer meetings, church swimming events, church camping trips, seasonal church parties, and church worship on Sundays. Cynthia’s father, Michael Anderson, described Cynthia as a “quiet obedient type of girl, who never made waves, yet had lots of friends.”
Cynthia Anderson drew attention from the guys
Cynthia was described by a neighbor as an attractive young woman, one who “maybe caught the attention of a passerby”. And while her parents insisted on strict rules and curfews while at home, Cynthia nevertheless had a boyfriend, also a part of the church. That summer her father said Cynthia had been spending a lot of time on her face and “becoming a bit of a debutant”.
Cynthia worked as a legal secretary in Toledo, Ohio. She was preparing to quit in order to attend Bible College. The same one in which her boyfriend was currently enrolled. And by the way things were going at the office, her last day at work couldn’t come soon enough. Unnerving events had begun to happen at work.
The identity of GW remains a mystery
The previous year on a wall across from her office window, someone painted the words “I love you, Cindy” in large letters along with a smaller “by GW”. According to one of her friends, Cynthia was the only Cindy who worked on that side of the strip mall where the law office was located. The sign seemed intentionally placed in order for Cynthia to see it. Cynthia apparently had no idea who “GW” could have been. The message remained up for six months, before finally being covered up.
A few weeks, later the same message reappeared, this time in even larger letters. The sign, however, would soon become the least of Cynthia’s worries. In that summer of 81, Cynthia began to be harassed by anonymous phone calls with disturbing, ominous messages. One of the law firm’s clients, Larry Mullins, recalled a time when Cynthia received a call while he was in the office. Mullins said Cynthia picked up the phone and quickly hung up, only for the phone to ring again soon afterwards. According to Mullins, Cynthia’s face betrayed the fact that “she was scared honestly, sincerely scared.”
Cynthia had nightmares she was being kidnapped
Cynthia began experiencing recurring nightmares, in which she would be kidnapped and murdered by a stranger. Due to the phone calls and Cynthia’s growing and understandable paranoia, her employers instructed her to keep the office’s doors locked at all times, even during business hours. They also installed an emergency buzzer at her desk. This would alert a nearby business if she were to use it. unfortunately, these precautions would turn out to be inadequate.
On Tuesday, August 4, 1981, Cynthia skipped breakfast and left her parents home around 8:30 a.m. She drove to the law office on East Manhattan Boulevard and was seen as late as 9:45 a.m. Around noon, her employer Attorney James Rabbitt arrived at the office. The lights and radio were on, but there was no sign of Cynthia.
The scent of nail polish or nail polish remover reportedly hung in the air. Cynthia was known to leave a note and place the phones on hold if she was stepping out of the office. She hadn’t done either. There was no sign of a struggle. According to some reports the office door was still locked from the inside. Though her car, a 1980 Chevy Citation, was still in the parking lot, her keys and purse were missing. Perhaps most eerily, a romance novel that Cynthia had been reading was left open on her desk, turned to a page that described the protagonist being abducted at knifepoint.
Theories Behind the Disappearance of Cynthia Anderson
An obsessed stalker kidnapped Cynthia.
Between the phone calls and the “I love you Cindy” sign, it seems someone definitely wanted to get the young woman’s attention.
Detective William Adams of the Toledo Police Department said investigators worked with Cynthia’s friends to try to figure out who “GW” could be. They were able to turn up only one suspect, a maintenance man with those initials who worked in the building and had keys to all the office doors. No evidence was ever found indicating the man was somehow responsible however, and no charges were ever brought.
Eventually, the man who spray-painted the “I love Cindy” sign reportedly did come forward. He said the message was intended for a different Cynthia, and once again he was never charged.
A month after Cynthia disappeared, police received an anonymous phone call from a nervous, whispering female voice. The caller claimed Cynthia Anderson was being held in the basement of a white house. There were apparently two houses next to one another, owned by the same out-of-town family. The woman on the phone claimed to know the son of the family was the one holding Cynthia. Police begged for more details, but the caller hung up. Searches for houses like the one described yielded nothing.
Cynthia Anderson was murdered, perhaps for overhearing information about a drug deal.
Moreover, one of the attorneys working in the same office as Cynthia in 1981 was Richard Neller, in turn, one of Neller’s clients was Jose Rodriguez Jr. In 1996, Neller and Rodriguez were both convicted for involvement in a long-time drug conspiracy. Authorities theorized that Cynthia could have perhaps overheard Neller and Rodriguez discussing some drug deals. She would then have been kidnapped and murdered to secure her silence. In Rodriguez’s 1995 trial, one informant testified that Rodriguez had admitted to having murdered the young woman while threatening Neller, whom he accused of representing him poorly. The judge ruled the admittance unreliable. They concluded there was insufficient evidence to say either Neller or Rodriguez were involved in her disappearance, or that she had been kidnapped or murdered at all.
Two other possible murderers are brothers Anthony and Nathaniel Cook. Over the course of 16 months in the 1980s, the two brothers murdered at least nine people across Ohio, mostly young women. In 2000, as part of a plea deal with the prosecutor in Lucas County, the same county whence Cynthia disappeared, the Cook brothers confessed on tape to many homicides, though they denied killing Cynthia Anderson.
Cynthia ran away.
The Anderson household had been described as a strict one. Cynthia’s sister described, “my parents wanted us involved with church, and we were. Perhaps cynthia staring down the barrel of attending Bible College with a boyfriend who was also a part of the church. Perhaps she wanted to see the world apart from her sheltered vantage point. And walking away was the easiest way to do so.
As we already mentioned, Cynthia’s father had noted her further taking interest in her looks and dieting in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. He suggested these changes may have “contributed to his daughter going missing”.
The runaway theory is bolstered by the absence of any signs of struggle. As well as the fact that the doors to the law office were locked. However, there was apparently a substantial amount of money left in her bank account. That would have helped her start a new life, if that were her intention.
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