Hey, prime members, you can listen to the vanished ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.

But immediately a very intensive reaction occurred in the community, in the

Sheriff's Department, in the City Police Department, in the District Attorney's Office.

It was a very shocking thing, this young lady that was a model sort of a child and her parents were well known and respected in the community.

So it really gripped the soul of the community, I would say, when it happened.

And as a result of that, a great deal of effort and energy and innovative investigation

had developed as a result of those factors that made it different than some mugging in the streets or something of that sort.

It just didn't happen across.

Hello and welcome to episode 31 of The Vanished.

Tonight I'll be discussing the disappearance of 15-year-old Evelyn Hartley from LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

This is an older case but it has many mysterious clues. Evelyn was known as a responsible and studious teen.

On the evening of October 24th, 1953, she had planned to attend the LaCrosse State College Homecoming Game.

She was asked to babysit for the Rasmussen family that night because they planned to attend the game as well and their regular babysitter was going to go to the game too.

Evelyn decided to forego the game and babysit to earn some extra money.

The Rasmussen family was friends with the Hartley family. Evelyn's father and Mr. Rasmussen were both college professors.

Mr. Rasmussen picked Evelyn up around 6.30pm that evening and brought her back to his home at 24-15 Hushler Drive.

Evelyn brought several schoolbooks with her that evening so that she could study after the baby went to sleep.

Mrs. Rasmussen instructed Evelyn to put the baby in her crib at 7pm and then cover her with a blanket at 7.15.

Mr. and Mrs. Rasmussen left for the game with her 7-year-old daughter around 6.45pm.

Evelyn's mother said that she got a really bad feeling about Evelyn around 7pm and thought about calling her but talked herself out of it because she had only left about a half hour before and Evelyn always called at 8.30pm.

I think we've all done that before. You get a bad gut feeling about something and then you talk yourself out of it by rationalizing the situation.

Evelyn never made that 8.30pm call to her parents.

...