Unsolved MysteriesMissy Munday, the model student stolen away by Jerry Strickland.Missy Munday seemed to have everything going for her. Bright and dedicated to her studies, the 15-year-old straight-A student ranked in the top 10 percent of her class at Hancock High School in Maryland, played on the basketball team, and was an active member of the Future Homemakers of America. But everything changed in the spring of 1986.It began with Jerry Strickland, a smooth-talking stranger in his 20s who arrived in Mundays hometown, claiming that he wanted to build an orphanage. Instead, he struck up a relationship with the teenager. Within months, Missy would disappear from her home. Before long, the runaway would also be at the center of a murder investigation and millions would learn her story from an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that brought the police right to her and Stricklands door. How Missy Munday Met Jerry StricklerBefore her life took a sinister turn in the spring of 1986, Missy Munday was the very picture of small-town promise. Growing up in the quiet community of Hancock, Maryland, the 15-year-old was a standout student, consistently ranking in the top 10 percent of her class at Hancock High School. Her academic excellence was matched by her involvement in school activities, and, by all accounts, she seemed to be a normal teenage girl working toward a bright future. But as the Washington Post reported back in 1988, everything changed for Munday when Jerry Strickland arrived in town. Then in his mid-20s, Strickland approached Mundays family about buying or renting a property. YouTubeJerry Strickland, the smooth talker who set his eyes on Missy Munday.But soon Stricklands attention wasnt on real estate; they were on Munday.He began to single her out, showering the teenager with the attention and validation. While her mother saw Strickland as a smooth talker, Munday was infatuated. And soon, she would make a life-changing decision. The Disappearance Of Missy Munday In April 1986YouTubeA school photograph of Missy Munday.In April 1986, Missy Munday vanished. After going to school in the morning like normal, and promising to be home later, the honor student had left behind her textbooks, her friends, and her family. In her place was a note, signaling she had run away voluntarily. At the same time, Jerry Strickland also vanished from the town of Hancock. It was assumed that theyd run off together, but Munday was still a teenager, and thus classified as a runaway. Though police searched for her, Munday and Strickland had seemingly vanished. The trail went cold. For nearly a year, Mundays family lived in agonizing uncertainty. They had no idea if their daughter was safe, where she was, or if she was even still in contact with the man who had lured her away. The search for the missing teenager became a frustrating waiting game. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Michigan, Munday and Strickland were building a new life. Now 16, Munday had taken a job as an assistant manager at a Union 76 gas station near Pontiac. She and Strickland were seemingly living under the radar, far from their loved ones, hoping to stay undetected. But soon the attention of the nation would fall upon them. The Shocking Murder Of Elmer DeBoerFind a GraveElmer DeBoer, the victim of Strickland and Munday.On May 11, 1987, a man named Elmer DeBoer went to Union 76, as he often did. DeBoer was a courrier, and it was his job to pick up cash receipts from the gas stations in town. But on that morning, DeBoer vanished. So did the $10,000 he was carrying. And so did the young gas station attendant whom he had befriended, a 16-year-old named Missy Munday. A few hours later, DeBoers car was found in the gas station parking lot. The next day, he was found dead, with two bullet holes in the back of his head. But there was no sign of Munday.Police later came to believe that Strickland had used Munday to lure DeBoer away from his car, then robbed and murdered him. At that point, Strickland and Munday used cash to buy a car nearby, and disappeared yet again. Thus, the search for Missy Munday, which had begun as a hunt for a runaway, transformed into a nationwide manhunt for a suspected killer. And the break in her case came from a surprising source: a hit television show.How Unsolved Mysteries Helped A Missing Teenage RunawayUnsolved MysteriesMissy Munday in court.In February 1988, nearly a year after the murder of Elmer DeBoer, the story of the missing gas station assistant manager and the murdered courier was featured on the hit show Unsolved Mysteries. The segment detailed the crime and the disappearance of Missy Munday and Jerry Strickland, broadcasting their faces to millions of viewers across the country. The response was immediate and decisive. In Moses Lake, Washington, residents flooded the local police department with calls, all reporting the same thing: the couple from the show had moved into their community. He was working at KMart; she at a card shop. But when officers arrived at their modest rental home, they were surprised to find the couple waiting for them. Missy and Strickland had watched the episode of Unsolved Mysteries too they knew their time was up. Though Strickland initially insisted on his innocence, Munday ultimately struck a deal with the prosecution. She agreed to testify against him, and the prosecution dropped the murdering and kidnapping charges against her.Munday claimed that while she had known about the robbery, she had not known about DeBoers murder until after the fact. She testified that Strickland had told her afterward, in case anything should ever happen, I think you ought to know that I did it.The jury was convinced. Jerry Strickland was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an additional life term for kidnapping. Thus, the girl who had once been a promising honor student had become a key player in a murder and her testimony had sealed the fate of the man who had stolen her youth.The Fallout Of The TrialYouTubeJerry Strickland in prison.Jerry Strickland and Missy Mundays shared story had come to an end. For her role in the robbery, Missy Munday, tried as a juvenile, was sentenced to time at the Oakland County Childrens Village. But for Strickland, there would be no second act. He disappeared into the Michigan prison system, where he remains to this day.For Missy Munday, however, things were a bit more complicated. In her time on the run, she had given birth to Stricklands son (his second, the other from a previous relationship), but she was still barely an adult. After serving her sentence at the juvenile facility at age 19, she returned to a world she thought she had left behind. Over time, she faded from the public eye, leaving the true nature of her life after prison whether she had found peace, redemption, or continued to be haunted by the past hidden from the public eye. After reading about Missy Munday, the teenager runaway who participated in a murder and who was found thanks to Unsolved Mysteries, look through these cold cases that remain unsolved to this day. Or, go inside the quest to identify the Zodiac Killer and the most promising suspects who have emerged during the decades-long investigation. The post Inside The Case Of Missy Munday, The Teenage Runaway Found Thanks To Unsolved Mysteries appeared first on All That's Interesting.