She Vanished From A Family Picnic, And Then A Man Sent A Letter Claiming He Abducted Her, And It Had Details Never Released To The Public

It was a sunny, summer day in 1983 when 4-year-old Nyleen Kay Marshall went with her family on a picnic in Helena National Forest near Helena, Montana.

Yet, around 4:00 p.m., she vanished without a trace, and Nyleen's disappearance sparked the most extensive search effort in the state's history.

The young girl was born in Orange, California, and lived with her mother, Nancy, her stepfather, Kim, and her two siblings in Clancy, Montana.

Kim was also a member of the Capital City Radio Club, which is how the Marshall family wound up attending a picnic for the club in the Elkhorn Mountains on June 25, 1983.

That day, the adults participated in a radio preparedness exercise; meanwhile, the children played near the creek. But at approximately 4:00 p.m., after Nyleen was spotted near the water by a group of kids, she was never seen or heard from again. The group reportedly walked a few steps ahead, and when they turned around, she was gone.

Initially, the adults assumed she'd wandered off and attempted to call out her name. Nyleen never answered, though, and soon, they began to worry. Everyone started searching the area for the 4-year-old, to no avail, and the police were ultimately contacted.

Nyleen's missing person report grew into the largest search mission Montana had ever seen. Hundreds of law enforcement officers, forest workers, members of the National Guard, and volunteers descended on Helena National Forest and scoured for any sign of her.

Helicopters, divers, and a search dog named Duke also aided the effort. Nonetheless, after days of searching, no evidence of Nyleen's whereabouts was ever recovered, and investigators began to suspect she'd been abducted.

This theory was supported by two separate children's accounts regarding a strange man. First, one child came forward and claimed that, shortly before the girl vanished, an unknown man wearing a jogging suit had stepped out of the woods.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children - pictured above is Nyleen

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Then, another kid told a similar tale the following day, saying that the man in the jogging suit had spoken to two children and Nyleen for a short time. Additionally, he allegedly told her to "follow the shadow."

Still, the man's identity remains unknown to this day. It's unclear whether he was just an innocent individual passing through or if he played a part in Nyleen's disappearance.

And with so little to go on, authorities soon turned to Nyleen's own family. Her relatives were questioned, and at one point, Kim was considered a person of interest. But no evidence actually linked him to the case, which went cold for two years.

That was until the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children began receiving bizarre phone calls at the tail end of 1985. The calls were made by an unidentified man from phone booths in Edgerton, Wisconsin, who claimed he'd kidnapped Nyleen.

The same man also contacted Nyleen's family before sending a typewritten letter postmarked from Madison, Wisconsin. Within the letter, he said he'd abducted "a girl named Kay" and referenced details about Nyleen's case that had never been released to the public.

He admitted to taking the girl from Elkhorn Park before homeschooling her, as well as traveling across the United States and even abroad with her.

The man also said Kay was happy, stated he loved her, and that he just couldn't "let her go."

"I picked Kay up on the road in the Elkhorn Park area between Helena and Boulder. She was crying and frightened, and as I held her, she was shaking, and I decided that I would keep her and love her. I took her home with me," the letter's opening read.

"She is a sweet little girl, and it is because of how much I have grown to love her that I realize how much her family must miss her. But she has adjusted and seems happy. She trusts me and isn't afraid. We play a lot, and she laughs when we clown around. She smiles and acts coy when I tease her. She giggles when we snuggle and hugs me sometimes for no apparent reason. I love her, and I have her. I just can't let her go," the letter ended.

In the wake of the correspondence, authorities speculated that perhaps Nyleen's abductor had been traveling through Madison, Wisconsin, as a truck driver or salesman.

"When you eliminate the request for ransom, if money is not a motive, it must be to have a child of your own," noted special agent Neil Purtell.

Regardless, the man who penned the letter has never been found. Instead, after Nyleen's case was featured on a 1990 episode of "Unsolved Mysteries," a tipster who thought their classmate might've been Nyleen actually led to the recovery of another missing girl, Monica Bonilla, who'd been kidnapped by her own father nearly eight years prior.

The rest of the potential leads in Nyleen's case from then on have all been dead ends. In 1991, for instance, a man named Richard James Wilson turned himself in to the police and claimed he'd killed both Nyleen and another woman.

However, he had a history of mental illness, and the directions he provided to where he'd supposedly disposed of Nyleen's body resulted in no findings.

Eventually, Richard also recanted his story. And due to the lack of any evidence linking him to the girl's disappearance, he was released without charges.

The latest lead came seven years afterward, when a nurse in New Orleans treated a woman named Helena, who was brought in by an unknown man for childbirth.

The nurse thought she resembled Nyleen, whom she'd seen on a rerun of "Unsolved Mysteries," and contacted authorities. But once the police tracked down Helena in Oklahoma City, they compared her blood and confirmed it wasn't the missing girl.

Now, over 42 years later, what exactly happened to Nyleen and where she may be is still a mystery.

At the time she went missing, she was 3'2", weighed 29 pounds, and had brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing shorts, a yellow T-shirt, and no shoes. If alive today, she would be 47 years old.

Anyone with information regarding Nyleen's disappearance is urged to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at (406) 225-4075.