Overview

Last Seen: December 29, 1969
Location: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida
Age: 9 years old
Missing With: Wendy Brown Stevenson, age 8
Status: Endangered missing; foul play is suspected
Known Circumstances: Peggy and Wendy were last seen walking toward a beach parking area to buy ice cream. A later witness reported seeing two girls believed to be Peggy and Wendy with an unidentified man. Neither child has ever been found.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Peggy Rahn Disappearance: The 1969 Pompano Beach Case That Remains Unsolved

Brief Case Summary

Last Seen: December 29, 1969
Location: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida
Age: 9 years old
Missing With: Wendy Brown Stevenson, age 8
Status: Endangered missing; foul play is suspected
Known Circumstances: Peggy and Wendy were last seen walking toward a beach parking area to buy ice cream. A later witness reported seeing two girls believed to be Peggy and Wendy with an unidentified man. Neither child has ever been found.

Peggy Rahn and Wendy Stevenson Disappear From Pompano Beach

Nine-year-old Peggy C. Rahn disappeared from Pompano Beach, Florida, on December 29, 1969, along with eight-year-old Wendy Brown Stevenson. More than five decades later, the disappearance of the two children remains unresolved.

Peggy was born October 21, 1960. At the time she disappeared, she was approximately 4 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 67 pounds. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. Current National Center for Missing & Exploited Children information notes a small scar beneath her right eye and a birthmark on her right knee. Florida authorities list her as having been last seen wearing a pink baby-doll bikini.

A Chance Meeting at the Beach

Peggy and Wendy reportedly arrived at the beach separately that day. Peggy had been brought by a family friend, while Wendy was there with her uncle.

The girls knew one another through Palmview Elementary School and mutual friends, although reports indicate they had not been particularly close before that day. They met at the beach and began playing together.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., Peggy and Wendy decided to go toward the parking area to purchase ice cream. They did not return.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement continues to describe the girls as having been last seen walking toward the beach parking lot to buy ice cream cones.

A Mysterious Man and a Blue Chevrolet

One of the most significant early leads came from a convenience-store employee who reported seeing two girls believed to be Peggy and Wendy in the company of an unidentified man.

According to later case summaries, the employee identified the children from photographs. The man was described as white, approximately 25 to 30 years old, about six feet tall and weighing roughly 190 to 200 pounds. He reportedly had sandy-colored hair, gray or blue eyes, a noticeably shaped or humped nose, and a two-inch scar on the back of his right hand between the thumb and index finger.

The witness said the man wore a red turtleneck, blue dungarees and a gray pinstriped sport coat. He was associated with a metallic-blue 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet with a black vinyl top and wire wheel covers.

Contemporary accounts also generated reports of possible sightings after the disappearance, including an automobile matching the description reportedly being spotted farther north. None of those reports ultimately led investigators to Peggy or Wendy.

Investigators Initially Considered Drowning

Because the girls disappeared from a beach, investigators initially considered whether they could have entered the water and drowned.

That explanation became increasingly difficult to support. No witness reported seeing either child struggling in the ocean, neither body was recovered, and Wendy was reportedly considered a capable swimmer.

The drowning theory was eventually regarded as implausible.

The family friend who brought Peggy to the beach was also questioned during the investigation. According to The Charley Project’s case history, he cooperated, passed a polygraph examination and was cleared.

Kenneth Guy Shilts Became an Early Suspect

Approximately six weeks after the girls vanished, authorities arrested Kenneth Guy Shilts in Alabama.

Shilts was described in later case summaries as a serial child molester. Of particular interest was a coded notebook investigators reportedly found in his possession. One entry contained the words “Peggy and Wendy – Pompano Beach.”

Shilts acknowledged that he had been in central Florida around the general period when Peggy and Wendy disappeared, but he denied involvement in their disappearance.

Authorities were never able to establish that Shilts abducted the girls, and he was never charged in connection with the case. He died in 1991.

Serial Killer Gerard John Schaefer Was Also Investigated

Gerard John Schaefer Jr., one of Florida’s most notorious suspected serial killers, would later become closely associated with theories surrounding Peggy and Wendy’s disappearance.

Schaefer was convicted of murdering two young women and was suspected in numerous other killings and disappearances in Florida. Prosecutors publicly connected him with Peggy and Wendy’s disappearance in 1973, although he denied responsibility at the time.

Years later, while imprisoned, Schaefer wrote a disturbing 1989 letter in which he claimed responsibility for killing Peggy and Wendy.

The claim remains problematic as evidence. Schaefer was known for making sensational statements, and investigators never established enough evidence to charge him with the girls’ disappearances. Other accounts have also noted differences between Schaefer and the description supplied by the witness who reportedly saw the children with a man after they vanished.

Schaefer was murdered in prison in 1995 without ever being tried for Peggy or Wendy’s case.

Extensive Searches Failed to Find the Girls

The disappearance triggered searches, tips and reported sightings during the weeks following December 29, 1969.

Historical reports describe large-scale searches involving law enforcement and volunteers. By January 1970, hundreds of people had reportedly participated, yet investigators found no trace of either child. Later efforts reportedly became so extensive that a construction company agreed to dismantle a seawall because of the possibility that evidence or remains could be beneath it.

None of those searches produced Peggy or Wendy.

The Case Remains Open in Missing-Person Databases

Peggy Rahn has never been located, and there has been no publicly confirmed identification of her remains.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continues to maintain an active missing-child poster for Peggy and lists foul play as suspected. Her NCMEC case number is 1080046, and her NCIC number is M693837213.

Peggy is also listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as NamUs MP4639. Wendy Stevenson is listed separately as NamUs MP6692.

The original law-enforcement case number commonly associated with Peggy’s disappearance is PB69-915468.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of August 2026, Peggy continues to appear in current official missing-person resources. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement still lists her as a missing endangered child, while NCMEC continues to publish her missing-child case and requests information from the public.

No publicly announced arrest, recovery, identification or definitive resolution of Peggy’s case was located in current official records reviewed for this article.

The historical focus remains on the circumstances surrounding Peggy and Wendy’s disappearance, the unidentified man reportedly seen with two girls believed to be them, Kenneth Guy Shilts and Gerard John Schaefer. Neither Shilts nor Schaefer was charged with abducting or killing Peggy and Wendy.

Modern missing-person databases continue to preserve the case, meaning information can still be submitted and compared against unidentified-person investigations.

What Happened to Peggy Rahn?

The disappearance of Peggy Rahn and Wendy Stevenson has endured because the available evidence points in several directions without conclusively proving any of them.

An accidental drowning was investigated and eventually discounted. A witness described an unidentified man and distinctive vehicle. Kenneth Shilts possessed a notebook containing the children’s first names and the words “Pompano Beach,” but investigators could not prove his involvement. Gerard Schaefer later claimed responsibility, but no prosecution followed and questions remain about whether his claim was truthful.

What is certain is far simpler: two children walked away from a Pompano Beach outing on December 29, 1969, and never came home.

Peggy Rahn and Wendy Stevenson remain missing.