Disappearance of Toni Sharpless

40°02′06″N 75°15′33″W / 40.0349°N 75.2591°W / 40.0349; -75.2591

Toni Sharpless
A Caucasian woman with short, dark, styled hair smiles at the camera.
Undated image of Sharpless distributed after her disappearance
Born (1979-12-27) December 27, 1979 (age 44)
Downingtown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DisappearedAugust 23, 2009 (aged 29)
Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, U.S.
StatusMissing for 15 years, 2 months and 24 days
EducationBrandywine College of Nursing (BScN)
OccupationNurse
Years active2007–2009
EmployerLancaster General Hospital

In the predawn hours of August 23, 2009, Toni Sharpless (born December 27, 1979)[1] and her friend Crystal Johns left a party at the home of Philadelphia 76er Willie Green in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, United States. Not long after leaving, Johns suggested to Sharpless, whose erratic and combative behavior had led Green to ask that they leave, that she was not sober enough to drive; in response, Sharpless pulled over and told Johns to get out, which she did, and then drove off. Sharpless has not been seen since then.[2]

An early theory, that she might have accidentally driven her car into the nearby Schuylkill River, was discarded when searches of the river were fruitless. An apparent break in the case came two weeks later when an automatic license plate reader recorded her 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix's plates among parked vehicles in Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. There had been other reported sightings of Sharpless in Camden, but police there were unable to locate the vehicle or find any information about where it had been found.[3]

In 2013, the writer of an anonymous letter sent to Eileen Law, a private investigator handling the case, claimed that he had been hired to take the Pontiac to a shop in the Boston area in exchange for $5,000 in cash and the Grand Prix's license plates after Sharpless was killed during a confrontation with a Camden police officer. The writer did not personally know of any details about what had happened to Sharpless but included in his letter the number of her cell phone, missing along with her, and the last five digits of the car's vehicle identification number, information that had not been made public. Both were correct.[4]

Police dismissed the letter as a hoax despite the details, but Law, whose theory is that Sharpless is alive and being held captive by human traffickers, believes it was genuine and continues to investigate. In 2011, the Investigation Discovery channel's series Disappeared devoted an episode to the case.[5]

  1. ^ Missing person flyer reproduced at Auvil, Melissa (September 9, 2016). "Holding on to Hope, Seven Years Later: Nurse, country music singer advocates for fellow nurse, mom, and missing person Toni Sharpless". Chestercountymoms.com. Archived from the original on September 9, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  2. ^ McCormack, Eileen (August 22, 2010). "Missing nearly a year, mystery surrounding woman continues". Delaware County Daily Times. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  3. ^ Mucha, Peter (August 23, 2010). "Year later, still no trace of Toni Lee Sharpless". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  4. ^ Cavaliere, Victoria (January 12, 2013). "Anonymous letter claims missing Pennsylvania woman Toni Lee Sharpless was killed by police officer in Camden". New York Daily News. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  5. ^ "The Darkest Night". Disappeared. Season 3. Episode 7. February 14, 2011. 44 minutes in. Investigation Discovery.