INDIANA, Pa.,None — State police and the mother of a Somerset County girl who was 15 when she disappeared 24 years ago both said they believe the girl has met with foul play but are hopeful that whoever is responsible will still be brought to justice.
Marcie Smith, 53, spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Indiana, which has been investigating the disappearance of her daughter, Alicia Markovich, on April 26, 1987.
"It hasn't been fun, but I appreciate this," said Markovich's mother Marcie Smith. "There's not a day goes that I don't think about her."
Trooper John Matchik said police have all but concluded the girl died after leaving her divorced father's home near Blairsville following an argument.
"Ultimately Alicia never returned back to her father's residence and we have not been able to verify anyone who has received or been in contact with her since that fateful day 24 years ago," Matchik said.
Police also said DNA from the girl's baby teeth is being entered into a national database.
The girl's father did not attend but his current wife did. She asked the public to cooperate.
The case last received widespread attention more than 10 years ago when her father, John Markovich, told police in October 2000 that he received a letter that purported to be a confession sent from Bedford, N.H.
Based on information in the letter, police and a dog trained to sniff out cadavers searched a portion of the Conemaugh River bank outside Blairsville. They found nothing.
Police said they went to Bedford, N.H., and questioned a person whose name appeared on the letter. But that person had never heard of the girl or her family and didn't know where Blairsville was.
John Markovich told police he last saw his daughter walking away from his Blairsville home after the two argued about her mother seeking more money for child support. As she left, police said, Markovich told her to be home by 8 p.m.
He called police when she hadn't come back the following day.
Alicia's parents had divorced and her mother was given custody. John Markovich still has a home in Blairsville and another in Painesville, Ohio, police said.
Police released few details from the letter, but one portion said the writer got the idea for the letter "when I saw by chance an Old Missing Persons flier posted on the side of a mailbox" in Philadelphia.
"The second time I saw it, it was like everything faded to gray, nothing seemed real for a long time, I had thought it all had been forever buried," the letter said.
The writer told of feeling remorse, guilt and depression.
Police have since said they doubt the unsigned, typewritten letter is authentic. They don't expect to find the girl alive but instead hope to solve the case and give the girl a proper burial, assuming her remains can be found.
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