The Night Shy Shy Disappeared

2024-07-25 00:03:26

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Speaker 1

[00:00.00 - 00:22.26]

Hi, I'm Josh Mankiewicz with a preview of Dateline Missing in America. In our podcast's third season, we share six new unsolved mysteries, and we hope somebody listening may have a clue that could help crack one of these cases. Could that someone be you? Here's Dateline Missing in America.

[00:26.22 - 00:39.80]

She was shy-shy. to everyone who knew her, full name, Shykemia Pate. The day was September 4th, 1998.. Shy-shy was only eight. She had just started third grade.

[00:40.78 - 00:50.90]

The little town she lived in was Unadilla, Georgia, and that Friday, a southern summer wasn't close to ending. It would be 90 degrees and muggy.

[00:53.84 - 01:06.48]

That morning, shy-shy's mom, Veronica, walked her to school. Unadilla Elementary was just a couple of blocks away, and when they got there, Veronica says she told her youngest daughter what she always had.

Speaker 3

[01:07.28 - 01:10.88]

I love her and have a good day, and I'll see her when I get home.

Speaker 1

[01:11.48 - 01:30.62]

For Veronica, that moment remains the dividing line between life before and after, because when she got home that night, shy-shy wasn't there, and that's when the world, as Veronica had known it, changed, and it still hasn't changed back.

Speaker 3

[01:32.62 - 01:36.06]

It's a storm that never stops storming in your life.

Speaker 1

[01:36.06 - 01:47.16]

What Veronica calls the storm has been raging for more than 25 years. Has there been a day when you didn't wake up and think about where your daughter might be?

Speaker 3

[01:48.22 - 01:50.18]

I think about that every day and every night.

Speaker 1

[01:50.64 - 01:53.18]

It's about the worst thing a parent can go through.

Speaker 3

[01:53.72 - 01:54.34]

It is.

Speaker 1

[01:55.14 - 02:05.80]

26 birthdays have gone by since shy-shy vanished. Today she would be 34, and Veronica hasn't given up on finding her. Do you think she's still alive?

Speaker 3

[02:06.50 - 02:08.70]

I feel in my heart that she's still alive.

Speaker 1

[02:09.68 - 02:14.54]

In fact, Veronica believes she may have already found shy-shy.

[02:16.44 - 02:37.14]

I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Dateline. Missing in America. This episode is The Night Shy-Shy Disappeared. We first covered her story in November 2023, when Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, drew our attention to it. Natalie has a lot to say about this case.

Speaker 2

[02:37.62 - 02:44.58]

We just need one person to come forward with information that could help find her. We have seen miracles happen.

Speaker 1

[02:45.20 - 02:48.46]

Veronica has hoped for that miracle every day.

Speaker 3

[02:48.94 - 02:56.22]

You just pray and ask God to teach you how to put one foot in front of the other, hold your head up and smile. Even when you can't smile, you still smile.

Speaker 1

[02:56.92 - 03:05.88]

Please listen closely, because you or someone you know might have information that could help Shy-Shy's family find the answers they've been searching for.

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