A little girl went to sleep for the night – only to never be seen or heard from again.
On Sept. 5, 2001, Jaquilla Scales went to bed at a home on north Volutsia, near 17th and Hillside in northeast Wichita. She was spending the night with family. They went to check on Jaquilla in the middle of the night. The four-year-old was gone.
“Who would just want to, just takes a child? Comes into my grandmother’s back door and take her… for what? What did she do? What did I do? You know. I don’t understand,” her mother, Eureka Scales said.
“There’s no trace of her at all,” asked reporter Annette Lawless.
“No trace, Eureka responded. “It’s like she just vanished. Like she just, no trace. No evidence. No nothing. Nothing.”
In the days and weeks that followed, people put fliers up in the neighborhood and conducted massive search parties. Through the years, interest in the case has faded – only to resurface when other children are reported missing.
Eureka said she continues to fight for her daughter – a child who was full of life and spoke her mind. They lovingly referred Jaquilla to as Grammy Boo.
“I don’t want nobody thinking I gave up because I haven’t,” Eureka said. “I live with this every day of my life. It’s hard. It’s hard. I don’t know if she’s alive. I don’t know if she’s dead. I don’t know nothing. Nothing.”
Eureka hopes that Jaquilla is getting ready to start a family. Perhaps she will realize her true identity, if she was abducted as her family suspects. Jaquilla has a scar on her upper right leg, a brown birthmark on her face and a trait of Sickle Cell.
For the person who took Jaquilla, Eureka makes a plea.
“Just let her come home,” she said. “It’s been so long now. She’s 21. She’s grown. What else can you all do with her? Let her come home. We miss her. W love her. We want her home.”
A young girl disappeared from a South-Central Kansas home more than 17 years ago. To this day, Wichita Police are trying to figure out what happened to Jaquilla Scales.
Jaquilla, who was 4 at the time, was last seen in her bed after midnight on Sept. 5, 2001. Her family went to check on her a couple hours later – only to notice their girl missing. She was wearing a knee-length nightshirt with flowers and tan barrettes in her hair.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released an age-progressed photo of what Jaquilla would have looked like at 13 years old.
She may answer to the name “Grammy Boo.”
JAQUILLA SCALES
Missing: Sept. 5, 2001
Age then: 4
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing marks: scar on upper right leg, brown birthmark on face.
If you have information that can help, contact the Wichita Police Department at (316) 268-4220. If you have a person you’d like for me to share a story about, please contact annettelawless@hotmail.com.