It seemed like just an ordinary night for Annie, the best friend of Kimberly King, but she didn’t realize that that night on September 15, 1979, it would be the last time she would ever see Kimberly.
Staying over at her grandparents' home in Warren, Michigan, Kimberly had planned to sleepover at Annie’s house. Anne lived across the street from them. Around 11 PM, an older sister of Kimberly, Konnie, said she received a call from her where she stated that she was at an outdoor pay phone not far from their grandmother’s home. There have been some witnesses who say Kimberly was actually spotted using a phone miles away.
Konnie urged her to go back to Annie’s house as it was too late to be playing outside. After hanging up, it was the last time Konnie heard from her sister.
What happened that night?
With new information from a news video by WXYZ-TV Detroit, Annie gives a bit more detail into what happened that night.
According to Annie, Kimberly had the habit to head over to her house and use the sleepover to her family as a coverup. What Kimberly was actually during those sleepovers was ditching Annie’s house and heading to Gratiot to cruise during the night. The way she would get around was by hitchhiking. Annie explains that Kimberly was an old soul, someone who acted more mature and she would pretend to be older than her given age of twelve.
Because of this, she may have been involved in the wrong crowd during that night which could have lead to her disappearance.
Annie states that while they were together in her backyard, she watched as Kimberly hopped the fence and headed to wherever her destination was going to be that night. Most likely familiar with this situation, Annie headed back to her home and waited for Kimberly.
She was expecting Kimberly to show by morning but when it was apparent she wasn’t there, she became worried. Kimberly’s grandmother eventually called asking for her to return home and that’s when Annie went across the street to tell Kimberly’s family everything that she knew that night.
Theories surrounding Kimberly's disappearance
There have been a few clues regarding Kimberly’s case and her case is classified as a non-family abduction with probable foul play in her disappearance. While one of Kimberly’s older sisters ran away a few times, there was no evidence pointing to Kimberly as a runaway especially given the new information about that night.
One of the police theories regarding her disappearance is that she may have been a victim of a serial killer of children in Oakland County. If she is victim to this serial killer, her case would be atypical as in the other cases, the bodies of the victims were left by the roadway and found rather quickly. But Kimberly has never been found.
While it may be a cold case, police have decided to look deeper into the matter and are finally interviewing Annie for the first time in 38 years. A fresh pair of eyes into the investigation may help discover what happened to Kimberly but relocating the suspects in the case may prove to be difficult after so many years.
Kimberly’s family and friends are still hopeful that she will return home, even if she may not be alive. Annie, now a wife and mother, always looks back on the past wondering what could have been. She says it has taken her many years but she finally was able to forgive her thirteen-year-old self for not telling an adult as to what Kimberly was up to back then. Kimberly’s mother is grateful that they’re looking deeper into the case and hope that they will bring her back one day.
She says that she doesn’t believe that Kimberly is still alive but the most important thing to her is to bring Kimberly back home and she won’t stop until she does. She says that it is the most important thing in her life and always will be until she is found.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call The National Center for missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE LOST or the Warren Police Department at 1-586-574-4705.
