It was 25 years ago today that McDougall's 17-year-old daughter, a wide-eyed, academically gifted Filipino teen named Pamela Ann Pedro, disappeared without a trace after being dropped off by her mother at Atwater High School.
McDougall, 65, said the passage of time has not eased the pain and frustration she feels, cradling the memories of her daughter as if they were precious gems. "It's so hard for me to go through this again," McDougall said, trying to hold back tears, as she recounted the events preceding her daughter's disappearance. "It's a very tender time for me."
The fact that her daughter would have turned 42 on Sept. 2 makes this month even tougher for McDougall. Still, she clings to hope -- and investigators with the Merced County Sheriff's Department are continuing to ask the public for clues into Pedro's disappearance. The case has received national attention from various missing-persons networks, and it was featured in 2005 on Nancy Grace's CNN show.
At the time she vanished, Pedro lived with her mother, her father Richard Pedro, and her 12-year-old brother, David, on Rainbow Lane in Winton. The last time McDougall saw her daughter was the morning of Sept. 13, 1982, when she dropped her off at Atwater High, where she was begining her senior year.
McDougall returned to the school around 1:30 p.m. to pick up her daughter, who was nowhere to be found. "Normally when I was there at 1:30 p.m. she would be approaching the car. But this time she wasn't," McDougall said. After waiting for about 30 minutes, McDougall went to the attendant's office to have her daughter paged -- but still there was no sign of her. "When I went to the attendant's office they said they had seen her earlier, and that was about it," McDougall said.
After waiting for another 30 minutes, McDougall called her husband and waited until 3 p.m. She then left school and picked up Pedro's brother from junior high. "We went back to the high school and waited. I waited until 4:30 p.m. I called my husband again and he came home immediately."
Pedro's parents notified the Merced County Sheriff's Department and were told they would have to wait 24 hours before an investigation could begin. Twenty-four hours passed -- and still no one had heard anything from the girl, a karate black belt with a dimple.
The sheriff's department interviewed Pedro's family and friends -- but no clues or signs of her ever turned up. "At the onset of all of this, the sheriff's department concluded that she was a runaway. But it's unlike her not to get in touch with me. We were very close," McDougall said. "There's been not a word. There's been no activity on her social (security card) and no driver's license has been issued to her."
Sgt. Jason Goins of the Merced County Sheriff's Department's Major Crimes Unit said investigators have followed up some new leads within the past six months in Pedro's disappearance, although they still have not discovered any evidence leading to a break in the case.
Although Goins acknowledged that investigators 25 years ago said there was a possibility that Pedro could have run away from home, he believes that scenario is unlikely, since there have not been any calls from Pedro to her parents or friends since her disappearance.
Asked if investigators believe that Pedro was kidnapped, Goins said that is a possibility investigators have considered. "We're not exactly sure what happened to her. At this point, we have no idea," Goins said.
Those who remember Pedro said she was an advanced student in school and was also a classical pianist. Carol Van Hoogmoed, a Turlock-based veterinarian who attended Atwater High with Pedro, said they used to have the same dreams of becoming veterinarians and "like kids do, we used to talk about what boys were cute."
She still remembers the times when the two of them attended slumber parties together and how she "used to go to their house and hang out. She was really nice, had a good heart and was always trying to help people," Van Hoogmoed said.
Then Van Hoogmoed broke into tears, saying that she still has not gotten over Pedro's disappearance. She sometimes wonders if she will ever see Pedro alive again. "You never think about that happening to anybody you know. It was very unnerving. We still don't know anything," she said.
Pat Kaufman, a former neighbor of Pedro's, said she was very shy and quiet. "She was in a karate class with my son. They were very, very quiet people," Kaufman said. She quoted a flier that said Pedro had a black belt in karate, was active in aerobics, had a bright, friendly face, a dimple on her left cheek and a mole under her right eye.
McDougall now lives in Oregon and has since remarried (her husband and Pamela Ann's father, Richard, a karate and music instructor, died in 1985). One of the most difficult aspects about her daughter's disappearance is all of the unknowns, such as wondering if her daughter is still alive and who could possibly know about what happened. "This is not an easy thing to go through. I don't even know if she's alive," McDougall said. "I only had 17 years with her. It's every parent's nightmare to have their child missing. Every time I hear of a missing child my heart just goes out to the parents, because I know what they are going through."
Pedro is one of two missing-child cases still open in Merced County. In 1998, Vanessa Smith, 14, disappeared in Winton while walking in the area of Mercedes Avenue at Jones Road.
At age 17, Pedro had black hair and dark brown eyes, braces on her teeth, and she wore large-framed eyeglasses. Her nickname was Pam, she had a dimple on her left cheek and a small mole under her right eye. She was wearing a pink and blue checkered shirt, blue corduroy pants with blue Nike shoes when she disappeared.
Anyone with information about Pedro's disappearance or whereabouts is asked to call the Merced County Sheriff's Major Crimes Unit at 209-725-3880. You can remain anonymous.
Reporter Victor A. Patton can be reached at 209-385-2431 or vpatton@mercedsun-star.com.
