In the 1980s – before social media and the Amber Alert – U.S. dairy companies began printing photos of missing children on the sides of milk cartons to raise public awareness.

Although the program had a low success rate in bringing children home, it laid the foundation for methods that The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is using today’s time to help search for missing children.

Twelve-year-old Jonelle Matthews was one of the children depicted on milk cartons, and she is now the subject of oxygen two-part special The girl on the milk cartonPremiere on Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Five days before Christmas 1984, Jonelle disappeared from her family home in Greeley, Colorado. The girl on the milk carton includes interviews with members of her family, as well as with the police officers who investigated the case and a woman who helped solve it.

Before the premiere of The girl on the milk cartonlook at what happened to other high-profile cases of children whose faces appeared at the breakfast table.

Randy Parscale

On April 7, 1979, 10-year-old Randy Parscale disappeared while hiking with his grandfather and other relatives in Peppersauce Canyon in Oracle, Arizona, about 50 miles north of Tucson, according to ABC affiliate KGUN-TV. The group wanted to celebrate the boy’s good grades, but when it was time to leave, Randy was nowhere to be found.

Tracking dogs led them to a dirt road where tire tracks were discovered, leading authorities to believe Randy had been kidnapped.

Despite tremendous efforts, including the NCMEC taking an age-appropriate photograph of the missing boy, Randy was never found.

Etan Patz

One of the first – and most famous – faces to circulate on a milk carton was that of 6-year-old New York boy Etan Patz, who disappeared while walking to his school bus stop in Manhattan on May 25, 1979, a day that then-President Ronald Reagan later declared National Missing Children Day. Etan’s disappearance was crucial to the movement of missing children, although the case remained unsolved for decades despite widespread publicity.

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Etan’s case was reopened in 2012 when the FBI dug up a basement in search of the boy, but efforts were fruitless. The excavations came shortly before Pedro Hernandez – a teenage warehouse worker from a neighborhood store where Etan reportedly liked to buy candy – confessed to luring Etan with a soda and strangling him to death, according to NBC affiliate WNBC. According to NPR, Hernandez said he placed the child’s body in a box and left it on the curb.

Although the defense claimed the confession was coerced, Hernandez was found guilty of murder and kidnapping in 2017 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Etan’s body was never found.

Adam Walsh

Six-year-old Adam Walsh was kidnapped from a Sears department store in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981. The case helped spark new new legislationthanks to his parents, who campaigned for missing children. His father, John Walsh, later hosted America’s most wanted criminaland other programs that helped catch fugitives and find children.

Two weeks after Adams’ abduction, fishermen discovered the child’s severed head in a canal about 120 miles from Hollywood, but his remaining remains were never recovered, NBC News reported.

Although no conviction was made in that case, law enforcement and Adams’ relatives believe he was likely murdered by convicted serial killer Ottis Toole, who confessed to the murder before dying behind bars in 1996.

Adam’s case gave rise to the Code Adam Alert (still used today when a child goes missing in a department store) and the U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which laid the foundation for a national sex offender registry.

Cinda Pallett

The face of Oklahoma City teenager Cinda Pallett was plastered on the sides of milk cartons after she and her friend Charlotte June Kinsey disappeared from the Oklahoma State Fair on Sept. 25, 1981. Shortly before the 13-year-olds vanished, Charlotte called her mother around 5 p.m. and said a fair employee had invited them to unload stuffed animals from a truck and they had agreed to be home by 9 p.m., according to Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO-TV.

Two teenagers came forward and said a man drove them and the girls to unload the alleged truck. He then dropped the men off and promised to return, after which he disappeared with Cinda and Charlotte.

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Convicted child molester and kidnapper Royal “Roy” Russell Long – who admitted to being at the fair the day the girls disappeared – remains the prime suspect in the case. After charges were dropped against him in the Cinda and Charlotte case, the suspected serial killer reportedly whispered to the families in court, “Only I know where the bodies are, and I’m not talking,” said Ray Elliot, the now-retired Oklahoma County Assistant District Attorney, according to KOCO.

Long died behind bars in 1993 and neither Cinda nor Charlotte were ever found.

John “Johnny” Gosch

Johnny Gosch was one of the most famous milk carton children after the 12-year-old paperboy disappeared on September 5, 1982, shortly after leaving for his morning newspaper route in West Des Moines, Iowa. His case, along with the 1984 disappearance of 13-year-old local paperboy Eugene Wade Martin, were the first to appear on milk cartons when Des Moines-based Anderson Erickson Dairy came up with the idea before it became nationally known.

The two boys handed out newspapers for The Des Moines Register.

Another paperboy reported seeing Johnny just before 6 a.m. chatting casually with someone in a blue car. This was the last sighting of the boy., according to CNN. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the case, numerous conspiracies flourished over the years, most notably when Johnny’s mother claimed in 1997 that her then-adult son showed up at her doorstep with an unknown man, told her some details of his kidnapping, and then disappeared.

There were no named suspects in this case and neither Johnny nor Eugene were ever found.

David Warner

The disappearance of 12-year-old David Warner of Jefferson City, Tennessee, in March 1983 still haunts Appalachia. The boy, who later became known as “Little David Warner,” disappeared after arriving at Druthers Restaurant with his school report card, where he could show off his good grades in exchange for free ice cream, Knoxville-based ABC affiliate WATE-TV reported.

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According to NamUs (the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), David later watched television at a friend’s house – about 100 feet from his own – and left the house around 7 p.m., telling the friend he was going home. His family realized he was missing the next day, although the arrangement of his blankets made it seem as though David was trying to deceive his relatives into thinking he was in bed.

Authorities initially believed David had gone out with friends, but now believe he was the victim of a crime. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Rima Traxler

On May 15, 1985, third-grader Rima Traxler of Longview, Washington — about 50 miles north of Portland, Oregon — disappeared on her way home from St. Helens Elementary School, according to her NamUS profile. The 8-year-old was last seen just two blocks from her home.

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There were no significant leads in the case until the kidnapping, rape and murder of 12-year-old girl Kara Rudd led to the arrest of suspected serial killer Joseph Krondo, a friend of Rima’s parents. As part of a deal with prosecutors, Krondo confessed to killing Rima in a similar manner to Kara. He had used the password “Unicorn” set by Rima’s parents to lure the student into his car before killing her at the same swimming lake where he killed Kara, according to the ^ “Seattle Post-Intelligencer – 1st ed. 2012”. Krondo claimed he buried Rima in a shallow grave, but her body was never found, the killer said in an interview with the Seattle newspaper before his death behind bars in 2012.

“I thought if I could take her to a place far enough away and bury her, there was no way they would find her or look for her there,” he said. “And I was right.”

Krondo is the most important Suspect in the rape and strangulation of 8-year-old Chila Silvernails in 1982, and is believed to have killed other people as well.

For more information about the Missing Children Milk Carton Program and Jonelle Matthews, visit The girl on the milk cartonBeginning Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on oxygen.