In 1983, She Vanished After Heading To The Pharmacy To Pick Up Medicine For Her Sick Baby, And Her Car Was Later Found Abandoned On The Interstate
When Frankie Darlene Horsley was just a little girl, her own mother tragically passed away in a car accident, and she was later raised by her aunt and uncle. But then, after having a baby of her own, Frankie mysteriously vanished, and her now-adult son has continued a decades-long search for answers.
It all began in 1983 when Frankie was just 18-years-old and living in Fayetteville, North Carolina. At the time, her son, Roger Sealey, was only 18-months-old, and she was no longer with Roger’s father.
On March 10, 1983, Roger became sick and started to run a fever. So, Frankie left and headed to a local pharmacy to buy some medicine. Tragically, though, Frankie never made it home, and she was never seen or heard from again.
After Frankie’s loved ones hadn’t heard from her for four days, they reported her missing to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
At that point, an investigation was launched, and a week after she disappeared, Frankie’s car was discovered abandoned on Interstate 20 West in South Carolina. It was located close to the 44-mile marker and headed toward Georgia.
The vehicle was reportedly locked, and inside, investigators found some of Frankie’s clothing. However, her car keys were gone.
“She disappeared under highly suspicious circumstances,” explained Senior Sergeant Adam Bean of the Cumberland Sheriff’s Office.
According to Sgt. Bean, it has been extremely difficult to investigate Frankie’s disappearance due to outdated police technology and practices that were used at the time she vanished. Additionally, finding witnesses in Frankie’s case – which is now over 41-years-old – has proved harrowing.
“One of the hardest things is family members have since passed away, and that the people who are alive now were young at the time, and their memories may have faded,” he said.
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However, Sgt. Bean claimed that authorities did interview one person of interest in Frankie’s disappearance. He was unable to discuss any further details since the case is considered an active homicide investigation.
Frankie’s son, Roger, who is now an adult, also thinks foul play was involved as he doesn’t believe his mother would have just abandoned him.
“I was told my whole life she wouldn’t just leave me. I was her baby; I was her world. It’s just something I know in my gut. I know she didn’t just leave,” Roger said.
Following Frankie’s disappearance, Roger was adopted by Frankie’s aunt and uncle – who had previously adopted her after her mother died in a car accident.
According to Roger’s adoptive brother, Ronald Sealey, it was out of character for his cousin, Frankie, to just up and vanish.
“She was here one day, gone the next. I kept thinking she would come home, and she never did,” he recalled.
“I think something happened to her. She would have contacted [mom] if she had run away – at least on holidays. We had a very Christian family.”
Nonetheless, Frankie’s family still hasn’t heard or seen from her in decades, and Roger has continued to search for answers and wonder how he might’ve turned out different had his mother been in his life.
“I wonder every day what I would have been like if she was around. Would I be a better person?” Roger asked.
At the time of her disappearance, Frankie was five foot two, weighed 125 pounds, and had blue eyes and brown hair. She would be 59-years-old today.
If you have any information regarding her disappearance or whereabouts, you are urged to contact the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at (910) 323-1500.
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