Cayce Lynn McDaniel, who was 14 years old at the time, was reported missing from her Milan, Tennessee, home on August 17, 1996. After a church event in the late afternoon of August 16, 1996, Cayce was dropped off at her house. When her family arrived home, the back door was left open and she was missing. Cayce vanished without a trace.

A grand jury in Tennessee’s Gibson County indicted a suspect for Cayce’s rape and murder in October 2019. Cayce’s remains have not been located, and the prosecution of the defendant is still pending.

Details of Disappearance

On August 16, 1996, around 12:30 a.m., Cayce left a back-to-school party at the church she and her family attended, Double Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and headed back to their house on U.S. 45 in Milan, Tennessee. She was dropped off there, and a chaperone observed her enter the residence.

Cindy McDaniel, her mother, arrived at the house between 1:30 and 2:00 in the morning. Cayce’s bedroom television was on, and Cindy saw that the outfits she had worn to the party were lying around. The back door was open, and there was a bowl of cookies and some milk on the floor, but it would frequently come by accident.

No signs of a struggle were present. Cayce appeared to have changed into her pyjamas before leaving the house for an unknown reason. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Cayce frequently spent the night at a friend’s house, so her mother didn’t immediately report her missing. Since they lacked a phone at home, Cayce called a friend the following morning using a phone at a family friend’s residence. Cindy had the family friend drive her around to look for her when she realized she wasn’t there. After ten hours had passed since Cayce was last seen, she called the police.

Sketch of Possible Suspect

With this case summary is a sketch of a potential suspect in Cayce’s disappearance. He had a dark complexion, dark hair, dark eyes, and a scar under his right eye. He was in his early twenties. He had an earring in his right ear and was about 6’0″ and 170 pounds. He’s never been given a name.

After Cayce vanished, there were two unconfirmed reports of her sightings in her hometown. Witnesses reported that the girl was with an unidentified man in his 20s. Authorities are uncertain as to whether the girl was Cayce or simply another young woman who resembled her.

Finis Ewin “Pete” Hill was identified as a suspect in Cayce’s disappearance in July 2018. This case summary is posted with a picture of Hill. He was a suspect from the beginning of the investigation and was known to Cayce as “Uncle Pete,” but his identity was not made public until 2018.

Hill has a lengthy criminal history, which includes accusations of both aggravated burglary and rape. Following an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap a woman in 2003, he was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault. He was later accused of crossing state lines to have sex with a fifteen-year-old girl just a few months after his release from prison in 2018.

In reality, he was speaking to police while he believed he was online communicating with the girl’s mother. Hill claimed in the online messages that he enjoyed raping and beating women and that he had previously had sex with a fourteen-year-old girl. In order to have sex with the woman and her daughter, he went to a hotel in Southaven, Mississippi, where FBI agents were waiting for him. In his car, they discovered sex toys, condoms, alcohol, marijuana, and more.

On the evening of Cayce’s disappearance

On the evening of Cayce’s disappearance, Cindy claimed she and her boyfriend attended a party, and Hill left as they were about to arrive. She claimed Hill had repeatedly made sexual advances toward her, but every time she had refused him and threatened to tell her boyfriend he was bothering her, Hill had become enraged as a result.

Hill’s wife had given him a plausible explanation for what happened that evening, but her account was false. Cindy speculates that Hill went to her house to exact revenge after being rejected, thinking she was home alone, only to find Cayce there instead. She claimed that Cayce would have had enough faith in him to grant him access to the home.

October 2019

23 years after Cayce vanished, Hill was accused of raping and killing her in October 2019. In that case, he is awaiting trial; little is known about the evidence against him according to the authorities.

In 1996, Cayce was a freshman in high school. Her family members describe her as an excellent student and well-behaved teen; they don’t think she would have run away and neglected to get in touch with them for this long. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance lead one to believe that foul play was involved.

Her Case is still unsolved. What happened to Cayce and Where is her body?