Jackie Lynn Leslie & Cynthia Ardina Leslie -Missing 38 Years

(L) Jackie Leslie and (R) Cynthia Leslie. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org) 

IT WAS July 31, 1974 in Mesa, Arizona when Cynthia Leslie, 15, and her younger sister, Jackie Leslie,13, told their mother, Erma Prue, that they were scheduled to baby sit. Erma last seen her daughters walking down Baseline Road (near Power Road) together. They would never be seen or heard from again.
Jackie and Cynthia's mother would later learn that the girls never had to baby sit that day. Instead, they were on their way to attend a party that was being held at a friend's house. Their destination was only three blocks away from their own residence in Desert Shores Mobile Homes Park. Cynthia's main motive for going to the party may have been to meet an unidentified teenage boy. Her father had asked her to not see him anymore.
Individuals who attended the party were questioned more than once on if they had seen Cynthia or Jackie that night. Many accounts are conflicting, some claimed to have seen the girls, others insist they never arrived. Some say they stopped by briefly and left.

 Cynthia Ardina Leslie was 15 years old when she vanished. She was 5'6" and 109 pounds. She had brown hair and hazel eyes. She has a dark brown mole on the outer side of her armpit, half an inch in size. Her ears are pierced and she wears eye glasses, but she may not have been wearing them when she vanished. She goes by the nickname Cindy. She was last seen wearing a summer shirt and light blue jeans.
Jackie Lynn Leslie was 13 when she vanished. She was 5'4" and 110 pounds. Jackie has brown hair and blue eyes. She has a mole on her right cheek bone. her ears are pierced. She was last seen wearing a summer shirt and blue jeans.

This what what Cindy looks like without her glasses on. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org)

The girls had moved to Mesa, Arizona a month earlier from Page, Arizona so that their father could be closer to a local hospital. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 1974, and was very ill. The girls' mother, Erma, says the girls were very close to their father, and would have never left of their own accord, especially since he was very ill. (He passed away seven months after his daughter vanished.) The girls also left all of their personal belongings inside of their residence. Police searched orange groves and cotton fields.These fields are now filled with theaters, stores or subdivisions. The latest tip given, in 2009, led to excavation of a backyard of a Cottonwood home last summer.
I believe a significant part of the girl's case is finding out if they ever arrived at the party. It's figuring out where they were taken from. Was it the party? Was it off Baseline Road? Did they even leave the trailer park? Somewhere between that three block radius, something happened to these girls. Pin-pointing exactly where these girls vanished from could help shed a lot of light on this case, and help us get an idea of who took them.
I tend to lean towards the theory that something sinister happened at the party, mostly because of all the conflicting statements. Teenagers at the party also seemed to be unwilling to come forward, maybe because they don't want to get involved, or maybe because they are hiding something. What kind of people were there? Older teens, young adults? Was there drug use? Were these girls way out of their element and way in over their heads by being there?

Jackie was only thirteen when she vanished in Mesa, Arizona. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org)

I found it weird that Cynthia would bring Jackie to a party, she seems too young to go, but maybe she did that to support her story of having to baby-sit. Erma, the girls' mother, believes the teens from this party were "the wrong crowd". She was also suspicious at the fact that right after the girls vanished (perhaps before it was even made known that they were missing), friends that used to call for the girls stopped calling altogether. Knowing all this, I have always wondered if drugs were involved at this party. I think both Cynthia and Jackie would have been out of place at a scene like this. Maybe they were silenced by people at the party to hide drug activity.
 And what about that mysterious boy Cynthia most likely went to see? Was this a case of Cynthia leaving with him because she wasn't allowed to see him anymore? Maybe she took Jackie with? This theory is one that is appealing, because it could mean they are still out there, living life, but I do not think the girls' would keep from their family, especially during a hard time.
I have also heard the theory that Ted Bundy could have taken the girls as they were going to the party, or at the trailer park. I do not know if he was ever in Arizona at the time, but he was in the Nevada/Utah area. The girls do look like his usual victims: Small, young, Caucasian with darker hair, parted in the middle. With no evidence of him being in Arizona during 1974, we can only rule this theory out for now. However, when I was looking through the database for missing persons, there is an unbelievable amount of girls and teens who vanished in 1974. I am not sure if that is a coincidence or why that is, but I hope to see some closure in these 1974 cold cases. You can look at the list of the cases for yourself at The North American Missing Persons Network website. I thought of further searching the NAMUS databases for cases that may have similarities to the Leslie sisters' disappearance, but I feel the people that know what happened to them were at that party. I think this is more likely then a stranger passing by and picking the girls up. It makes sense to me that their disappearance may not be related to any others out there, and can be solved if someone from that party steps forward with details of what happened that night.

Cynthia and Jackie's father lost his battle with cancer seven months after he lost both his daughters. Their mother is still searching for them. (Photo Credit: CharleyProject.org)

For someone to take two sisters at the same time, it would take more than one person, or maybe one was taken, so the other went with for her sister. I have also thought about the idea that someone did something to one sister, and had to silence the other who would most likely have gotten help for the other. I think Cynthia may have been the main target here since she is the one who seems to have been invited to the party, so it's most likely she would have known the people there. I do think that Jackie may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My last thoughts and theory about this bizarre case, is maybe everyone gives conflicting details because their deaths could have been an accident that was covered up? Maybe they fell, overdosed, or got alcohol poisoning. It absolutely makes sense, both these girls were young, and not known to have done activities like that, but maybe they did to fit in at the party. Perhaps the pain from knowing they were losing their father also contributed to them feeling impulsive and in need of coping with the situations in a negative way. During the teen years, you want to conform, not stand out and find your own person-yet. I hope as the years go by, the people who are withholding information will remember that these girls never got the chance to do that, and while everyone else is moving on, their loved ones are still stuck in 1974, wondering what happened to Jackie and Cynthia.

 Above are age progressed photos of what the girls may look like now (L=Cindy, R=Jackie).http://www.nampn.org/mp1970-1979.html

“I’ve tried to keep the story of their disappearance alive so nobody forgets about it. I think there is someone out there who knows what happened to them and never came forward.”-Erma Prue, The Leslie Sisters' Mother, East Valley Tribune.

Their families are still searching, if you have any information, big or small, please come forward. You can remain anonymous. Please contact:

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

 602-256-1087

 Sources:

The Charley Project

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/leslie_cynthia.html

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/leslie_jackie.html

East Valley Tribune

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/153084
http://projectjason.org/forums/topic/1758-missing-sisters-jackie-cynthia-leslie-az-07311974/