Overview

Last seen: December 29, 1969
Location: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida
Age: 8
Companion: Peggy Rahn, age 9
Circumstances: Wendy and Peggy walked toward the beach parking area to buy ice cream and disappeared. A clerk reported seeing the girls with an unidentified adult man who bought them ice cream. Foul play is suspected. Kenneth Guy Shilts and Gerard John Schaefer later became suspects, but neither was charged in the girls’ disappearance. Wendy and Peggy have never been found.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Wendy Brown Stevenson: The 1969 Disappearance of an 8-Year-Old Girl From Pompano Beach, Florida

Eight-year-old Wendy Brown Stevenson disappeared from Pompano Beach, Florida, on December 29, 1969, while spending the day at the beach. She vanished alongside nine-year-old Peggy Rahn, a schoolmate she encountered there that day. More than half a century later, neither child has been found.

Wendy’s disappearance remains one of Florida’s oldest missing-child cases. Authorities suspect foul play, and over the decades investigators have considered multiple men, including convicted criminals Kenneth Guy Shilts and Gerard John Schaefer. No one has ever been charged with Wendy’s disappearance.

Wendy Brown Stevenson’s Disappearance

Wendy was born June 20, 1961. She was eight years old, approximately 4 feet 2 inches tall and 61 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. Identifying features included an appendectomy scar on her abdomen, freckles near the lower left side of her chin and a small mole near the center of her neck. She was wearing a blue-and-white checkered bikini when she disappeared.

On December 29, 1969, Wendy went to the beach in Pompano Beach with her uncle. Peggy Rahn, age nine, had separately gone to the beach with a family friend. The girls knew each other through Palmview Elementary School and mutual friends, although accounts indicate they were not particularly close before encountering each other at the beach.

The two began playing together.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., Wendy and Peggy headed toward the beach parking area to buy ice cream. They did not return.

The Man Seen With Wendy and Peggy

A convenience-store clerk later reported seeing a man purchasing ice cream cones for two girls whom the clerk identified from photographs as Wendy and Peggy.

The man was described as white, approximately 25 to 30 years old, around six feet tall and weighing roughly 190 to 200 pounds. He reportedly had sandy-colored hair, gray or blue eyes, a humped nose and a roughly two-inch scar on the back of his right hand between his thumb and index finger.

According to historical case information, he wore a red turtleneck, blue dungaree-style pants and a gray pinstriped sport coat.

Investigators were also given a description of a vehicle associated with the unidentified man: a metallic-blue 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet with a black vinyl top and wire wheel covers.

Wendy and Peggy were never seen again.

The Initial Search and Drowning Theory

Authorities initially considered whether the children could have drowned.

That explanation became increasingly difficult to reconcile with the evidence. No witnesses reported seeing either child struggling in the water, neither girl’s remains were recovered, and Wendy was reportedly a good swimmer.

Investigators eventually discarded drowning as an implausible explanation and focused on the possibility that the girls had been abducted.

The man who brought Peggy to the beach was questioned during the investigation. According to published case summaries, he cooperated with authorities, passed a polygraph examination and was cleared.

Kenneth Guy Shilts and the “Peggy and Wendy” Entry

One of the most disturbing developments involved Kenneth Guy Shilts, a convicted child molester who was arrested in Alabama approximately six weeks after Wendy and Peggy disappeared.

Investigators learned that Shilts maintained a coded notebook apparently documenting crimes or encounters. One reported entry contained the words “Peggy and Wendy – Pompano Beach.”

The apparent reference naturally attracted investigators’ attention.

Shilts acknowledged being in central Florida around the period when the girls disappeared but denied involvement in their disappearance. Authorities were never able to establish that he abducted Wendy or Peggy.

Shilts died in 1991.

Gerard John Schaefer Becomes a Suspect

Another major suspect was Gerard John Schaefer Jr., a Florida law-enforcement officer who became one of the state’s most notorious convicted killers.

Schaefer was convicted of murdering two young women, but investigators suspected him in numerous other disappearances and killings involving girls and young women.

In 1973, prosecutors publicly accused Schaefer of killing Wendy Stevenson and Peggy Rahn. He denied responsibility at the time, and authorities never charged him with their disappearances.

Years later, however, the case took another disturbing turn.

Schaefer’s 1989 Claim

In an April 19, 1989 letter, Schaefer claimed responsibility for killing Wendy and Peggy.

The letter contained graphic claims about what he allegedly did to the children. Because those statements were never proven in court and neither Wendy nor Peggy has been recovered, Schaefer’s claims should not be treated as a confirmed account of their fate.

His statements nevertheless reinforced longstanding suspicions surrounding him.

Schaefer was murdered by another inmate in a Florida prison in 1995. His death eliminated the possibility of investigators obtaining a future prosecution or a definitive explanation directly from him.

Where the Investigation Stands Today

Wendy Brown Stevenson remains officially listed as a missing child. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement continues to publish her as an endangered missing child, while the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children lists her case and states that foul play is suspected.

Current records identify Wendy as NamUs MP6692, NCMEC 1080042 and NCIC M694087197. The Doe Network identifies her case as 2242DFFL. Historical case information also lists Broward County Sheriff’s Office case number PB69-915468.

There is no publicly verified recent announcement establishing what happened to Wendy and Peggy, identifying a definitive perpetrator, locating their remains or closing Wendy’s missing-person case. Public discussion of the case continued into 2026, but recent online theories should not be confused with confirmed investigative developments.

The strongest publicly documented historical suspects remain Kenneth Guy Shilts and Gerard John Schaefer. Shilts’s reported notebook reference to “Peggy and Wendy – Pompano Beach” remains unexplained, while Schaefer’s later claim of responsibility was never tested through a prosecution in this case.

A Florida Missing-Child Mystery More Than Half a Century Later

Wendy was eight years old when she walked toward the beach parking area with Peggy Rahn to get ice cream on December 29, 1969.

It was an ordinary childhood errand that became the last known chapter of both girls’ lives.

The passage of more than five decades has eliminated many witnesses and both of the best-known suspects are dead. Yet Wendy’s case remains publicly listed, and modern missing-person databases have preserved identifying information that investigators in 1969 did not have the ability to distribute instantly nationwide.

Until evidence establishes otherwise, Wendy Brown Stevenson remains a missing child whose fate has never been conclusively determined.