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"[This Night Wounds Time] was written to reignite fires that had long grown cold. I stand here tonight happy to report that it served that purpose; the Carrollton Police Department is back on [the Madison/Smalley] case [and] the Denton County District Attorney’s Office is assisting the Carrollton Police Department with the investigation...this is a direct quote from [the Denton County District Attorney’s Office] to me, '[O]ur office became involved after the book revealed a possible Denton County connection to this crime.  At that point we offered our assistance to the Carrollton Police Department.'"

- Shawn Sutherland addressing the Friends of the Carrollton Public Library on Monday, May 24, 2010.
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THE FACTS:
Since it was the last night of their Spring Break, 17-year-old Stacie Elisabeth Madison (right) and 18-year-old Susan Renee Smalley (left), both seniors at Newman Smith High School in Carrollton, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), were determined that the night of Saturday, March 19, 1988 would be devoted to carefree, youthful fun.  This included shoe shopping at Prestonwood Town Center and visiting friends in Arlington.

Shortly before midnight, the two returned to the Carrollton home owned by Susan Smalley's mother.  They remained there but a few minutes before venturing out into the night one last time.  They would never return.  Sometime after midnight, on the morning of Sunday, March 20, 1988, the girls stopped at the Steak and Ale restaurant in nearby Addison, where Susan visited with friends.

It is believed that Stacie and Susan traveled from Steak and Ale to Forest Lane, the legendary cruise strip known to every North Dallas teenager as the premier hot spot for meeting up with friends.


Photo by the author

Two days later, on Tuesday, March 22, 1988, Stacie Madison's pale yellow 1967 Ford Mustang was discovered in the parking lot of Webbs Chapel Village on Forest Lane.  Original case investigator Ohlen L. Sapp asserts that, "For certain [Stacie and Susan] ended up on down on Forest Lane [and] whoever's vehicle Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley got into, they knew them."

By all appearances, the girls parked and locked their car with every intention of returning to it later and proceeded to their final destination with persons unknown.  Where they went in those early morning hours, what their plans were, and the extent to which they knew the enigmatic person(s) from whom they accepted this mysterious ride are questions that remain unanswered 23 years later.


Photo courtesy of Ida Madison

Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley have not been seen or heard from since March 20, 1988 and, in the 23 years since they disappeared, with the exception of one "person of interest" whom the original case investigators insist was never "properly eliminated as a suspect in the case," substantive leads regarding what became of the girls have never materialized.

In 2001, Joe McKey, Program Administrator for the Missing Persons Clearinghouse of the Texas Department of Public Safety, declared, "No other missing persons case in the history of North Texas law enforcement has been as baffling as this one." 

Likewise, in 2009, Ida Madison, the mother of Stacie Madison, offered that the mystery of her daughter's disappearance would be solved only "by getting that one person who knows something to come forward."

    
Photo by the author 
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