Nearly 30 Years After Trudy Appleby Vanished, Police Arrest a Man With Family Ties
Trudy would have been 40 years old if she were still alive.
Published Aug. 18 2025, 9:38 a.m. ET
Every day, thousands of people are reported missing, a tragic reality that affects countless families. One of the most widely known missing person cases in the Quad Cities, which has also been featured on national networks to raise awareness, involves Trudy Appleby, who disappeared on Aug. 21, 1996, at just 11 years old.
According to KWQC News, Trudy was last seen at her home in Moline, Ill. Witnesses reported seeing her get into the passenger side of an older gray vehicle driven by an unknown man.
That was the extent of the leads until 2025, when police announced they had made an arrest and indicted a man they believed was connected to Trudy's disappearance. So, what happened to Trudy, and who is the man police believe is connected to her disappearance?
What happened to Trudy Appleby? Was she ever found?
Trudy Appleby disappeared from her Illinois home on Aug. 21, 1996, and that was the last time anyone saw or heard from her. It is believed that Trudy was murdered by the man she was last seen with.
Trudy had asked to go swimming that day with a friend on Campbell’s Island, but her father said no, Darren Gault, chief of police for the Moline Police Department, explained in a press conference held on Aug. 14, 2025. However, after police combed through phone records, they discovered that she “had gone ahead with those plans” and presumably relied on someone she shouldn’t have.
She was last seen getting into a vehicle described as silver or gray and “boxy-type,” with a white male with brown curly hair who was presumed to be in his 20s. According to her missing persons poster shared by The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Trudy was wearing black bike shorts, blue deck shoes, and white socks at the time. As of this writing, Trudy would have been 40 years old if she were still alive.
Meet the man who was indicted in Trudy Appleby’s missing persons case.
Nearly 30 years had passed since Trudy's 1996 disappearance, and finally, a breakthrough came in August 2025, bringing her family one step closer to justice and closure.
On Aug. 13, 2025, Gault confirmed that Jamison Fisher, 50, was indicted by a grand jury in Henry County on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death.
Gault said that back in 2020, he named Fisher a person of interest in the case. Fisher was a friend of Trudy's family and an associate of another suspect who died in 2014. At the time the arrest warrant was issued, Fisher was already in police custody at a Scott County, Iowa, jail on unrelated charges.
Fisher will remain in the Scott County jail “pending further court proceedings.”
Gault credited the ongoing work of officials and detectives on the case, as well as the support of the community, for helping bring the investigation to this point. While this is a significant step, Trudy's remains have still not been found.