The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back. I'm Ali. And I'm Eli.
So, I have something just slightly different for y'all this week. We are going to be doing a two-parter episode on the same case. I know we've kind of done this before, but a little bit of a new format. Well, I am very interested. I always enjoy when I'm listening to a podcast when there's an opportunity to go in depth on cases that usually have very little information about them. But sometimes when you do some more digging, you find quite a bit more.
I'm looking forward to diving in and learning about this case. Yeah, and this was definitely one of those cases where there was actually a surprising amount of information, but this case has just never really been covered much in the media that I could find. Do you want to get us started on episode 86, part one? Yeah, let's do it. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person. Today we are talking about the cold case of Regina Mae Armstrong.
And this takes place in June of 1985 in Orlando, Florida. First, a little bit about Regina. Regina is six years old in 1985. She is living in Orlando, Florida with her parents and older sister. At this time in June, Regina had just finished kindergarten. She was an outdoorsy young girl. She liked spending time outside climbing trees and collecting different types of bugs. Even though she loved getting down in the dirt, she also loved getting dressed up and having tea parties.
Her parents joked that she had a sophisticated palate. She was a foodie before we had the term. She would sit down for three course meals and eat everything and just be happy to be there. However, she was still excited to go to McDonald's or Long John Silver's whenever the opportunity presented itself. She was always snuggled up to her parents and her older sister would often complain that her sister was hugging and loving on her too much. Just an overall really loving girl.
And now a timeline of events. On Tuesday, June 18th, 1985, Regina's parents, Bob and Donna, both worked full time. Regina's older sister, Christine, was nine years old in 1985 but already had a host of medical issues and spent her time in and out of the hospital as a young girl. With both parents working full time, Bob, Regina's dad, took Christine and Regina to their babysitter's house on Semarand Boulevard in southeast Orlando. The babysitter's apartment was just a few blocks from their house.
When they got there, Regina hopped out of her dad's truck and said, quote, Daddy, I love you. I'll see you tonight. End quote. Regina is three foot six, about 45 pounds. She had a sunburned scab on her nose and she was wearing a blue and green flower dress. Bob drove to work, not knowing that this would be the last time he would see Regina. The morning was pretty uneventful.
By the time the girls had lunch, they wanted to play outside, so they headed outdoors with the babysitter's younger brother to play. Regina is not wearing shoes. The kids were playing behind the apartment building in the parking lot when a man approached them around noon. The man is around six feet tall with a medium build and dark bushy hair. He was thought to be in his late 30s or early 40s, but later reports will put him between the ages of 20 and 40.
He was wearing a brown, blue, and white plaid short sleeve shirt with silver snaps, faded blue jeans, and a gold watch. His upper lip was split and busted as if he had been in a fight recently, and he was missing two teeth on one side of his mouth. There's a possibility he had a tattoo on his left forearm. Christine would later recall, quote, he smelled oily, like he worked for a mechanic or on cars. He didn't seem like a normal guy, end quote. The man also reeked of alcohol.
The man leaves and the kids continue to play outside. However, he returns around 3 p.m. This time, he offers Christine and the babysitter's younger brother $2 to stand guard outside of an apartment. The man said that it belonged to him and his wife. He then told Regina, quote, to come with me and pick up my grandchildren, end quote. He told Regina that she could play with them as they were her age and that he would bring her home in 30 minutes.
Christine and the boy take the money and Regina went with the man. Christine last saw Regina walking east with the man away from the parking lot. However, after a few minutes, Christine starts to get worried. Just the week before her school, before the school year had ended, had put on a program about stranger danger and it dawned on her that something bad could have happened to her sister. Her and the babysitter's brother ran back to the apartment and explained what had happened.
However, the babysitter doesn't spring into action. She instead locks the front door of the apartment and ignores Christine. Meanwhile, Regina is nowhere to be found. The babysitter simply thought that Christine was being dramatic. A little after four in the afternoon, Donna, Christine and Regina's mom, arrived at the babysitter's apartment to pick the girls up. Donna is greeted at the door by a hysterical Christine saying, quote, a man took my sister. He took her away, end quote.
Donna springs into action and calls her husband to get over here and help search. Bob had just arrived at the family home, which was only a few blocks away. After hanging up with Donna, he calls the police to report Regina missing before heading over to the apartment to help search. Immediately, the police respond, but they're already at least 90 minutes behind Regina's abductor.
Regina's sister and the other child are questioned that evening about the appearance of the man and a composite sketch is created. About 70 officers will search around the apartment until midnight. Officers will continue to search through the night for Regina, but by the next morning, on Wednesday, June 19th, police start going door to door looking for witnesses or if anyone had seen this man before.
By the afternoon, about 20 officers on motorcycles stop people on the street to ask if they have seen the man before. They stop into local businesses around the apartment to see if anyone has seen him or recognize him. Regina's missing person flyers begin to appear all around Orlando almost overnight. On the flyer is Regina's picture and the composite sketch of the man. Local media begin to report on Regina's abduction and the composite sketch of the man is plastered all over the news.
A nine-year-old girl, Elisa, was watching the news at her home in Cocoa Beach, which is only about an hour away from Orlando. She saw the sketch and instantly recognized the man as her and her younger sister had almost been victims of a kidnapping. In their case, Elisa and her younger sister, Erin, were sleeping in their bedroom Saturday night, about three days before Regina's kidnapped.
When a man entered through their bedroom window and lifted Erin out of the window, Elisa woke up and saw what was happening and started screaming for her parents. The man was scared off and left Erin on the ground outside of her window while he sprinted away through their backyard. Both Elisa and Erin recognized the composite sketch as the man that entered their bedroom. Police from Orlando and Cocoa Beach compare the composite sketches in both of their cases and they're eerily similar.
Police continue to go door to door looking for witnesses. Her family beg for her safe return. Her dad, Bob, says, quote, who's ever got my daughter? Please bring her home. Her mother and I miss her. We love her. We want her back safe. End quote. Bob says that Regina knows her address and phone number and quote, if she could, she would call. If she could hear or see me, I tell her, Gina, daddy's not mad at you. You haven't done anything wrong. Please please come home. End quote.
Police also offers a $5,000 reward for the return of Regina. It's right about this time that police find a neighbor who had seen Regina and the man the day of the abduction. She tells police that at around 3 30 p.m. she saw Regina walking beside the man. It looks like they were headed towards Inglewood Park, which is about six blocks from the apartment complex. Police search every inch of the park, but nothing is found. Police find a few other witnesses.
A convenience store clerk says that he saw the man walking by himself along Summerin Boulevard when he entered the store, bought something and left. In Regina's case, really all of the stops are pulled out in this search. They have officers going door to door, searching through the night, the motorcycle officers patrolling the streets, officers on horseback searching fields. Police even bring in sent dogs and helicopters. Every available officer is searching for Regina.
However, by Friday, June 21st, Regina has been missing for three days. Police call off the official search. They have found no physical trace of Regina, but we're able to find several witnesses that saw the two walking together. The lead investigator in the case, Detective Mary Ann Waits says, quote, We want to believe that she is alive, and I believe we will find her. The biggest break, we believe, will come from the public, from someone who will spot Regina or the man who took her.
They've got to move around to eat, sleep and travel. What we need now is for everyone to keep their eyes and ears open, and if they see anyone matching the description, to call us immediately. End quote. Regina's family remains hopeful that she'll come home, but they're getting desperate for information and have even thought about reaching out to psychics. Her dad says, quote, I know that doesn't work a lot, but at this point, we'll try anything.
We've just talked about it, and I don't think we'll do anything for a few days at least. We don't want to jump the gun, but we don't want to wait too long. End quote. They've also thought about having Christine hypnotized to see if she can recall any more details about the kidnapper. The Orlando community is eager to help in the search for Regina. Community members come forward, volunteering to do anything. Answer tip lines, do paperwork, go out and search. Grocery stores drop off food.
Local restaurants tell the family they can eat free of charge. Hotels offer to put up family coming in to help for the search for free. This is really one of the most beautiful examples of everyone doing what they can for Regina and her family. As investigators continue to work the case, police start to believe that the Cocoa Beach attempted kidnapping is not related. Detective Waits says, quote, there are some significant differences.
We can't completely eliminate the possibility that the two suspects are the same, but based on what I know right now, it doesn't appear so. We are still looking into it. End quote. Over the next week, police begin to work the leads that they developed during their initial search, and they continue to man a 24-hour tip line. As police slowly work their way through the leads, they keep coming up empty. No Regina, no man with a busted lip.
As police approach a week that Regina has been missing, they use 130 Navy cadets to search an 18-mile square radius for any trace of Regina. Originally, police only searched a 6- to 8-mile square radius. But with the additional manpower, the searchers will search a larger area and all the abandoned buildings, woods, swamps, canals, creeks, and any other secluded area they happen upon. Her family remains firm that she is alive.
Her dad says, quote, we believe she is alive, and until someone shows us differently, we'll never believe otherwise. We're not going to give up. We'll find our daughter, if it takes the rest of our lives. Deep down in our hearts, we believe she's coming home. End quote. The family spend each day of the search at the command center, waiting for any leads about Regina. But the search concludes with no trace of her.
The search did unearth other skeletal remains of a young man who was later ID'd as William Legg. At this point, the search for Regina is the largest in Orlando's history. Despite the search for Regina turning up nothing, there are several people who called in reporting to see the man and Regina all over Orlando.
One story that keeps popping up again and again are witnesses calling in to say that they see a girl resembling Regina in the company of two men, one of which resembles the composite sketch. The trio is seen in a beige or brown vehicle, a mid to late 1970s car, possibly an Oldsmobile Delta 88. A housekeeper in a small roadside motel calls police saying that two men checked into a room with a young child. One of the men resembled the composite sketch and the little girl looked like Regina.
When police arrive, they check the room, but no one is inside. What they do find is a copy of Regina's missing person flyer torn into little pieces. On June 25th, there is another possible sighting of the man. Regina has been missing for a week when a man fitting the description of the suspect walked into a Popeyes restaurant at around 10 p.m. He asked the person behind the counter if they could open a can of ravioli. The workers at the restaurant recognize the man from the composite sketch.
An assistant manager heads to the back to call police while the cashier tried to keep him busy. While the manager was still on the phone, the man turned around and left. However, outside the restaurant, two teen boys see the man leave the Popeyes and follow him to a brown car. The man gets in the car and heads north on Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. The teens did not get a license plate.
Lieutenant Steve Harrelson says, quote, They followed him because he left hurriedly and they could tell there was some kind of commotion about him. Basically, they just walked behind him in the parking lot until he got into his car. The description they gave was about the same as what the Popeyes worker did. End quote. Regina's parents are very hopeful that this is a good sign. Ravioli was one of her favorite foods.
On June 27th, police come forward with all the possible sightings of Regina and the man over the last week. After this press conference, however, the reported sightings of Regina and the man will slow down and eventually stop over the next few weeks. So that is where we are going to leave part one of the timeline.
Next week, we'll get into covering part two with a few additional details about the search, how and where her body was found and how she's eventually identified as Regina and where the case stands as of 2024. If you know anything about the abduction and murder of Regina Mae Armstrong in June of 1985, please call Crime Line at 1-800-423-8477. And the sources for the timeline today come from Florida Today, the Orlando Sentinel, the Miami Herald, and News Press.
So that is part one of the Regina Mae Armstrong cold case. So this is just really her abduction. I had to like kind of table in my mind knowing that this was a cold case because it was just tugging at my heartstrings the whole time. But there are a few things I just wanted to say about Regina because one, she sounded incredible. She sounded like my nieces, our nieces. And that happens a lot, you know, when you bring up cases with kids, but particularly her taste for food.
My nieces love when my dad grills up steak. A similar spirit and while it made me so happy to know that, you know, a soul like that existed, it was equally as heartbreaking to know that she isn't here in the way that she should be. Absolutely. This case is so heartbreaking.
Yeah. What made me so happy to know that she had this joy and love for food was that I imagine she had to do some growing up even at the young age of six because it can be quite traumatizing to be the sibling of a sibling who is sick all the time. It can be very scary. It can be isolating. And you might have to, you know, just understand things way sooner than a child should have to understand.
So again, equally as heartbreaking, it still, it brought me joy to know that she enjoyed like the finer things in life at such a young age. Absolutely. I thought that detail was really fun about her being a foodie and sitting down to three course meals, just like this little six year old at the table ready to experience fine dining is just a really funny image. And I think that really captures her spirit when you see her pictures. Like you can tell she was like a funny little lady.
Yeah, totally. I do have some questions if it's okay to move on. My first question to you was, do you think it was someone she knew? I don't think that Regina had met him or really seen him before based off of Christine. Since she was just a little bit older, nine years older, or not nine years, but she was nine years old. I think that if she had met this man before, she would be able to recognize him and like explain who he was to her parents.
So I kind of based it off of Christine not knowing who the man was beyond his description. But if that man had been watching the kids and kind of seeing the schedule as the summer vacation started, I think that could be a possibility where maybe he was watching, learning a schedule, learning a routine when the kids are outside, that sort of thing. I think that is in the realm of possibilities. Totally. I mean, just horrific predator behavior.
And I also just want to like echo here, and I'm sure you've heard it on other podcasts before involving true crime, but adults do not need help from children. Not at all. It's never needed. It's never necessary. So the babysitter, I'm sure she probably lives with a lot of guilt, but like, man, am I just furious, especially because the information is brand new to me. But for the life of me, I do not understand that reaction. And that made me wonder a bunch of things.
What's your take on her reaction? Yeah, the babysitter is definitely an important player in the timeline. So the babysitter is relatively young. She's 21 years old. I was like, I was thinking, I thought, I thought she was like 14. I'm even more angry and I feel less bad about how angry I am, because that's not that is not a correct reaction. If three children leave and two come back, five minutes pass, you should be booking it. And I know it was the 80s, but like, they're not your kids.
I don't know. Totally. No, I agree with you 100%. It's really hard to wrap your head around the fact that she closes and locks the door, according to newspaper, she closes the front door, locks it. And I just don't understand how you explain that away to yourself for the next hour and a half until the mom gets there. You know, I don't know how you explain that to yourself that two kids came back, but one isn't here and the front door is locked.
So even if she was to wander up, she couldn't get in, she would have to stand there and knock at the door. And these apartments are ones that you can see the door from the outside, almost like a motel setup. So that is really disappointing that the babysitter did not respond faster. I believe she is cleared of involvement according to the newspaper reports. And even Regina's parents don't put a lot of blame on her for not calling police right away.
They say in the week following that they're not mad at the babysitter. But as somebody researching and learning about it, it is hard to understand that reaction and why she responded that way. And if this would have turned out different, had she been quicker? Yeah, I mean, the kids came back relatively soon. If you had immediately walked outside, she had a shot and missed it big time. And that raises a lot of questions in my mind. Like, why would you lock the door?
It is such an odd response to not immediately hop into action. Yeah, I think that based off of the neighborhood sightings that police were able to find, you know, in their door to door canvassing, I do think that had she called police right away, that there is a possibility they could have found they could have found her because police saw them and or not police saw them, but witnesses saw them walking along a route, it seems like. And police respond immediately and heavily.
So had that response come quicker, I think that there is a chance that they could have intercepted them. My question about the the sighting at 3.30 p.m. I wrote that down as I was listening to you, but I don't remember what it refers to. I think the neighbor said that she saw her at 3.30, possibly with this this man. But what was the window of time they were outside playing like was 3.30 significantly later? That's that's what I couldn't remember.
So they're outside playing, it seems like from around noon till 3. The man first approaches the kids around noon, according to initial reporting, and then he comes back around three. And that's when he offers the money to Christine and the young boy. And he takes Regina with him. So 3.30 would have been, I would say, probably within 15 minutes of her being abducted. I'm sorry, I keep coming back. It's just heartbreaking because she was out there.
Something else I wrote down was it seemed like she was right at the at like the authorities fingertips the entire time. And that's extra, you know, just a punch in the gut because she was right there. You said that the possible suspect stopped at a convenience store on that day, correct? Yes, it's unclear if that was before the abduction kind of between that noon encounter and the 3pm abduction. But he was alone. We're not sure what he bought.
But he was alone when he entered the convenience store. That was exactly what my question was going to be. I know you spoke on it briefly and I couldn't I couldn't have said it better. But the community's response was really incredible here, down to the young folks at the Popeyes. Him coming in and asking to open a can of ravioli. You know, I've worked in service before where people have needed something extra from the kitchen or kitchen staff to help feed their baby.
It's not something that's like unheard of. But a can of raviolis is very odd. And I'm glad that the community had papered, you know, his composite sketch as much as they did because those kids saw it and said something. Not only the workers at Popeyes, but then the young boys outside who continued to follow him. That was just incredible to me. Like hell yeah, I don't know who you are. But like, thank you for doing that.
Yeah, it's not quite clear if the two boys that followed him in the parking lot understood that he was the suspect if they were conscious of that. But it seems like police they just kind of like saw this guy kind of get in get out like kind of causing a commotion as it were. So they just like followed him for a while, which is really interesting. But some newspaper reports say that they chased him because they did recognize him. So yeah, but that's all community response.
Everyone put up flyers, businesses offered to print them, pay for them, whatever was needed to get them everywhere in Orlando. Yeah, just an incredible response. And you know, Orlando is a pretty big place. It's very busy. It's a it's a tourist area of the nation. So the fact that this like smaller knit community there really stuck together and showed up for this family was was beautiful. Yeah, I mean, I guess that brings us up to like right where you left us off. I'm very eager to hear more.
I'm so glad that you brought her name to the front of our minds. I imagine our listeners, especially as we've been growing in numbers, month by month will do some googling and I really hope you do because this case deserves as much attention as as any other case out there. I think it's completely solvable. I think it happened recent enough that there are still people alive who have information. Maybe someone knows something. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing Regina's story.
It's heartbreaking, but I'm so glad to know it now. Again, if you know anything about the abduction and murder of Regina Mae Armstrong in June of 1985, please call Crime Line at 1-800-423-8477. And we will be bringing you part two next week where we get into the discovery of Regina. If you're anything like me, which you probably are if you're listening to this podcast, I'm sure you will be digging into your own research this week.
But there's a lot of articles that are behind paywalls, but I do have access to them. So I will be bringing you all that information next week and we'll get into part two. In the meantime, we'll have pictures of Regina and the suspects on our Instagram, which you can check us out at Cold and Missing. Like Eli said, I do think this case is completely solvable and I think part of it is because of the composite sketch. I think somebody can recognize this person and put a name to who he is.
So check it out on our Instagram or our website ColdandMissing.com where we also have transcripts. So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, you can follow along that way. And if you have a minute, if you can rate and review us, give us a written review in Apple podcasts, that would be so great. We appreciate every single one so much. But that is all I have. Please tune in next week for part two of the Regina Mae Armstrong case. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Allie. And I'm your cohost, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y'all. Stay safe, y'all.