119: The Disappearance of Ann Gotlib: A Mall, a Missing Child, and a Confession (Part 1)

In June 1983, 12-year-old Ann Gotlib vanished from outside Bashford Manor Mall in Louisville, Kentucky. Ann was a gifted pianist, writer, and recent immigrant whose family had fled the Soviet Union seeking a better life for her. What should have been an ordinary afternoon ended in one of Kentucky’s most haunting unsolved missing child cases.

As Ann’s disappearance gripped the city, her case became part of a national reckoning about missing children in America. Her image spread across billboards and television screens, her name spoken alongside Adam Walsh and Etan Patz. But despite the attention, investigators found themselves chasing dead ends, unreliable witnesses, and theories that raised more questions than answers.

Years later, a convicted killer on death row would claim he knew what happened to Ann. His confession sent investigators racing to dig up the past. But just as hope surged, the truth slipped further away. And beneath it all lay a disturbing question: what if the answer had been there all along — and no one listened?

📍 Louisville, KY | June 1983

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read and written by Aimee Baker

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