This week’s Select It Sunday case, chosen by Sabrina, is Anthonette Cayedito. Now, for some reason, as I type this the Charley Project doesn’t seem to be working right now, but hopefully it will be back up again shortly.
Anthonette is of Native American and Italian descent. She was last seen at her home in Gallup, New Mexico in the wee hours of April 6, 1986. She was nine years old. A man who claimed to be her uncle — but wasn’t — dragged her into a vehicle and drove away.
There is some evidence that Anthonette survived for a time after her abduction, and I suppose she could still be alive even now, but the police don’t seem to think so.
The case seems very strange to me. Why did a nine-year-old girl answer the front door at three o’clock in the morning? Why did an adult not do it?
The Charley Project Blog 
We believe we have come across a girl we know that may have been kidnapped as an infant. We want to help her find out what happened to her. Do you have any idea where we start?
contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Explain the situation to them and they can tell you what you need to do.
Somebody in that house or on that reservation knows more than they are saying IMHO. Her alleged abductor identified himself as her uncle and was convincing enough to get her and her little sister to open the front door. That alone says whomever the man was knew her family. Also I question why her mother or any other adults in the home did not get up to see who was knocking at that ungodly hour of night. And if by some chance any adults didn’t hear the knocking then they most certainly should have heard the door being opened as well as the two frightened little girls screaming. Why the delay of several hours before calling the police? Where is the children’s father in all of this and is it possible he might have had something to do with it? This is a very strange case indeed.
I hesitate to say this, since I try not to judge the families of MPs, but maybe there were no adults in the house at all, or if there were, they were too drunk/stoned to answer the door themselves or perhaps even be aware of what was going on.
In this article it is said that before her death in 1999, police wanted to question Antoinette’s mother again,because she’d previously failed a polygraph and they thought she knew a lot more than she was saying, but arrived too late unfortunately.
http://truecrimediva.com/anthonette-christine-cayedito-disappeared-from-new-mexico-in-1986/
I remember seeing this one on Unsolved Mysteries back in the day. They played the actual call that was supposedly Anthonette after she was abducted. I think the call was to the Albuquerque Police Department. It was chilling to listen to, even if it wasn’t her.
I saw this one recently on a rerun of Unsolved Mysteries. There was also a Phone call made to 911 about a year after she disappeared by what sounded like a Young Girl claiming to be “Anthonette Cayedito” and stating that she was in Albuquerque. She repeated it twice and then you heard a man in the background yell “Who said you could use the phone?” And the little girl screamed and the line disconnected and I believe they were unable to trace it.
The sighting at the restaurant was about 4 years after she disappeared and it was after that sighting that authorities went back and re interviewed her younger sister. That was when she told them about the knock at the door, the person claiming to be “Uncle Joe” and Anthonette getting grabbed and dragged in to a van. She said she hadn’t told anyone at the time because her mom was crying (Because Anthonette was missing) and she was afraid that she would get in trouble.
It is a rather strange tale… as you said why were two young girls answering a door at that hour alone?! whomever took her had to have known the family – enough to know that there was an “Uncle Joe” and probably to know that the girls would answer the door.
Very sad.
Hey Megan the link to the casefile doesn’t seem to be working for me!
The whole website isn’t working right now. Shrug.
Hey Meaghan, thanks for using my suggestion! This case is one that truly terrified me as a child.
I know Anthonette’s parents are now dead, but I believe she has two younger sisters still living. Her sister Wendy seems certain that her parents were not involved, but hasn’t publicly disclosed any theories about who she thinks is responsible. I wonder what the rest of the family believes happened.
I don’t think the police believe that the girl in Carson City was Anthonette. I imagine they’d keep the info about her potential whereabouts to themselves if they did. The Carson City story was probably only released in hopes of finding the girl who did write the note. I hope whoever that girl was is safe now.
I remember this case from Unsolved Mysteries