For months now, we’ve been dropping hints and waiting to finally share this case with you. Now we have the unique opportunity of sharing a story that has been trapped in the dark for three-quarters of a century: the missing persons case of two-year-old Earnest Cagle Jr.

On August 27, 1950, little Earnest vanished from the backseat of his family’s car outside a tavern in Buckhart, Illinois. Despite massive searches, the trail went entirely cold. Decades passed, the headlines faded, and terrifyingly, the official systems meant to look for missing children completely forgot he was gone.

But is anyone every truly forgotten? Not on this podcast. We’re pulling back the curtain on how a case sits outside the system for a lifetime, and the intense behind-the-scenes hurdles we faced to finally get Earnest Cagle Jr. into a missing persons database 76 years later.

SOURCES:

https://sangamoncountyhistory.org/2-year-old-vanishes-1950/

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1s82has/in_the_summer_of_1950_2yearold_earnest_cagle_jr/?share_id=Ec_tUYEPetbm1RoqKRFBx&utm_content=2&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

https://imgur.com/a/sQOg3YF

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101845582/earnest_doss-cagle

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27661107/hattie_adeline-cagle

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1324760865/?match=1&terms=earnest%20cagle

https://www.newspapers.com/image/85369970/?match=1&terms=earnest%20cagle

https://www.newspapers.com/image/85369026/?match=1&terms=earnest%20cagle

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1303733602/?match=1&terms=cecil%20delay%20tavern

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1303731320/?match=1&terms=cecil%20delay%20tavern