June 14, 1980. Angelina and Kevin Verville welcomed a baby boy into the world. He was named Kevin Jr.
The couple lived in the Sterling Homes apartment complex in Oceanside, California, off-base housing for military families stationed at Camp Pendleton.
The family hadn’t been home from the hospital long when a woman who called herself “Sheila” knocked on their door and said she worked for an organization called “HELP,” which was supposedly dedicated to helping low-income military families.
Dateline spoke with Angeline Hartmann, the director of Communications for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), who shared what the Verville family thought “Sheila” was going to do for them. “She would help them get food and diapers and milk,” Hartmann said. “They had agreed, and she said, ‘Well, I’ll be back.’”
And she did come back. It was July 1, 1980. “She came back and picked up the mom and said, ‘We will, you know, take you to our office,’” Hartmann said. “And so mom and baby get in the car. And the woman takes off, they drive along, and she says, ‘Along the way, we’re gonna pick up another mother. She’s also going to be part of the program.’” So they stopped at another home in rural San Diego County. “She asks the mom to get out and knock on the door. The mom goes out to knock on the door, and the woman drives off with 17-day-old Kevin Verville,” Hartmann said.
Angelina Verville was stranded—and her baby was gone. “It’s a heartbreaking story,” Hartmann said. “Kevin’s mother and father have never been the same.”
There were large search efforts for Kevin Jr. at the time. They turned up nothing. And “Sheila” has never been located. Kevin’s case eventually went cold.
Four decades later, NCMEC is trying to bring attention back to Kevin’s case.
Earlier this month, right before Kevin’s 45th birthday, NCMEC held a press conference about the case.
FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego field office, Houtan Moshrefi, spoke during the press conference. “This was a case that the FBI in 1980 was investigating, and it was a major priority for us, and that stands true today, as well,” he said. “Although 45 years has passed, we remain committed to this case and our ultimate goal is to reunite Kevin with his family and also hold that individual responsible that kidnapped Kevin from his family.”
Through the FBI’s investigation, authorities learned “Sheila” had spent several days at the apartment complex before Kevin Jr. was abducted and spoke with many residents. “Investigators believe she was looking specifically for a baby who was half-white, half-Filipino, and male,” Hartmann told Dateline. “And she found that baby in Kevin Verville Jr.”
Witnesses helped authorities create a sketch of “Sheila.” According to Moshrefi, “Sheila” was described as approximately 20 years old, 5’2”, and 130 lbs. She had a tattoo of a circle with a cross or plus sign in the webbing between her thumb and index finger on the inside of her left hand.
This month, NCMEC released an image showing what Kevin might look like today at the age of 45. They are hoping someone will recognize him and help solve the mystery of what happened to him. “We have the new age progression and we’re really trying to breathe new life into this case and get everybody fired up about it because that’s what needs to happen to find him,” Hartmann said.
On this week’s Dateline: True Crime Weekly, Andrea Canning spoke with Angeline Hartmann, and Colin McNally, the Supervisor of NCMEC’s Forensic Imaging Unit.
McNally talked about the history of age-progression images. “Traditionally, forensic artists utilized pencil sketching, compositing techniques,” he said. “The inception of computer technology made it available for us to do this work quicker and more accurately.”
The forensic imaging unit can now use actual photos of the missing person, paired with family reference photos, to create the age progressions.
McNally said that since 1989, their team has created about 8,000 age-progression images. “About 1,700 children have been recovered where an age progression was done, and hundreds of those case files actually note the age progression was seen by a member of the public,” he said.
Getting those age-progression images seen is one of their greatest challenges. “If we don’t get that image to the–out to the public, it does no good,” Hartmann said. “We need to connect that image with somebody out there in the public who will recognize it. Or at least, you know, spark some kind of recognition in their mind.”
See other cases Dateline has covered in the “Missing in America” and “Cold Case Spotlight” series, in which NCMEC age-progression images are featured
NCMEC relies on local and national media, as well as social media, to distribute an image far and wide, in the hope that the right person sees the image and it shakes loose a memory. “It’s timing, it’s willpower, it’s motivation. A lot of factors go into this,” Hartmann said. “When you line all of that up, it really is awesome stuff to know that hundreds of these have worked.”
The NCMEC team is hoping it will work in Kevin Verville’s case, too. “We believe that he’s out there and he has no idea who he is. He was abducted at 17 days old. The woman who took him likely took him to raise him as her own child,” Hartmann said. “And so now here you have this 45-year-old man walking around on this earth thinking his life is one thing and his biological parents have been looking for him all these years, and now it’s getting fresh eyes because of this age progression.”
“We’re asking you to take a good look at these photos, the age progression photo, and also the photos of what “Sheila” would potentially look like back in 1980,” FBI Special Agent Moshrefi said at the June 10 press conference.
“Kevin Verville Jr. could be anywhere. We’re a connected world today, more than we were 45 years ago. We have the power of social media. We have the capability of you folks to push this information out to the communities so that anyone who could potentially recognize Kevin—or the perpetrator who took Kevin from his family—can contact us and assist us in solving this case.”
Angelica Ramsey also spoke at the press conference. She is Kevin’s little sister. She never got to meet him. “I was born 5 years later,” she said. “I remember when my mother first told me about him and that horrible day.” It was as raw as if it had just happened yesterday. “She was so animated and in tears.”
Angelica has spent most of her life wondering where her older brother could be. In 2021, she reached out to investigators to see if there was anything new in the case. “I was connected to an FBI agent and then later with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,” she said. “We have new hope that we can finally find Jr. He is loved and missed by so many, and I hope that we can find him very soon.”
Kevin Verville Sr. also spoke at the press conference. He expressed his gratitude for the work being put into his son’s case and talked a little bit about how the kidnapping changed their lives.
“We had too much trust in people at the time, which –. We lost a lot of our trust for people, in general, after that,” he said. “It changed our lives. It changed the way we think. It changed the way we talk. It changed the way we do everything.”
During the press conference, Moshrefi stated that the FBI is looking into DNA work to help identify Kevin Jr. “We actually submitted some DNA recently to see if we can find similar matches and identify Kevin through that,” he said. Moshrefi also confirmed that the FBI is continuing to honor the $10,000 reward for information that leads to locating Kevin Verville, Jr., as well as the arrest and conviction of those responsible for his abduction.
If anyone has information about this case, please contact NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI and tips.fbi.gov.
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