27 Years Later: The Heartbreak and Hope for Answers in the Disappearance of Mindy Clevidence

Joe Lyons • December 17, 2023

Paula Clevidence sat in her charming country kitchen, with 27-year-old faded photographs spread out on the kitchen table. It had been twenty-seven long years since her daughter, Mindy, born on October 15, 1978, had gone missing. The pain still gnaws at her heart every single day. In this moment of solitude, Paula allowed herself to remember both the happy times and the sad times before her world had been shattered.

But Paula didn’t want to drown in sorrow. She wanted to remember the joy Mindy had brought into their lives. The image of a vibrant, happy little girl formed in her mind. “Mindy was always full of life,” Paula reminisced, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “We lived on a farm back then, and she was always outside, playing with her three sisters. We had animals for the fair, and Mindy loved her market steers. And oh, how she adored her kitty cats! She had a little favorite cat that she carried everywhere.”

Life was good for Mindy. Her days were filled with laughter, sketching beautiful drawings, and mesmerizing everyone with her sweet melodies. Paula’s eyes filled with fresh tears as she remembered how Mindy passionately memorized scripture verses for the Awana Club meetings. “She was so excited about earning those badges,” Paula whispered, a bittersweet ache tightening in her chest.

A Turn for the Worse

Then, like the shifting winds, difficulties started creeping into their lives. Mindy was ten when her sister, began facing severe health issues. Paula’s heart ached at the memory. “It was tough for Mindy because a lot of attention was focused on her sister,” she explained, her voice tinged with regret. “It wasn’t easy for her during that time.”

As the family moved to Loudonville, tensions rose, and the once-harmonious home became a battlefield of emotions. Mindy was seventeen, and her discontent grew, causing strains in their relationship. “I tried my best to reach out to her,” Paula murmured, her voice heavy with unspoken guilt. “But everything felt like a constant battle. Mindy stole my car, got into trouble at school. I wanted to help her, to guide her. I pleaded with her, telling her that we can work through her problems together. But it just didn’t happen.”

Mindy Disappeared

In the summer/fall of 1995, things took a devastating turn. A desperate decision was made, and Mindy was sent to a group home in Dayton, hoping it would provide her with the help she needed. That was the last time Paula saw her daughter’s face, heard her laughter, or felt her tender embrace. It all slipped away, leaving behind an agonizing void in Paula’s heart.

Paula vividly recalled the day her daughter disappeared. “She just disappeared,” Paula gasped, her voice choked with tears. “We couldn’t find any answers.” They were told that she left the youth home to meet up with friends in Detroit, Michigan.

Mindy’s father Gary immediately wanted to drive to Detroit, Michigan to look for his beloved daughter, telling Paula, “Let go!”

Paula reasoned with Gary asking him, “Where in Detroit?”

“I don’t know just drive around,” he replied. With the voice of reason eventually winning over, both decided the best they could do is check with the police.

Then Paula’s sister Barb received a call from Mindy around Thanksgiving in 1995, revealing she was ok and in Michigan.

For a brief moment, hope flickered within Paula’s weary soul, as she remembered a Mother’s Day card she received during those months leading to Mindy’s disappearance. It was a small gesture, a spark of connection amidst the darkness of uncertainty. Paula cherished the thought of that card, an irreplaceable token of love from her daughter.

Sleepless nights turned into tireless days, and time passed, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, months turned into years. Mindy’s whereabouts remained a mystery as the family desperately clung to hope, praying that Mindy would one day reach out, that she would confirm she was safe.

They waited and waited; their hearts burdened with unanswered questions. Twenty-seven years may have slipped away, but Paula refused to let go of the memories, the love, and the hope. She had weathered countless nights of tears and endless days of longing. She yearned for closure, for answers, and for the chance to hold Mindy in her arms once more.

But time passed, and Mindy’s whereabouts remained a mystery. Paula just couldn’t imagine that Mindy still hanging on to the anger that separated them, she couldn’t be still mad at me, then her favorite grandmother died that Mindy cared for, still nothing from Mindy. Deep within Paula a nagging thought, maybe something bad had happened to Mindy, surely, she wouldn’t have missed her grandmother’s funeral. They waited and waited; their hearts burdened with unanswered questions.

And so, Paula Clevidence remembers. She remembers the laughter in Mindy’s eyes, the warmth of her presence, and the extraordinary spirit that made her daughter truly shine. With a heart heavy yet resilient, Paula waited.

Highland Park Jane Doe

But fate would once again deal a heavy blow to those hopes of finding Mindy alive, in the form of a phone call. As Paula would say, things happen in God’s time, the wheels of circumstance were turning long before Paula would have thought. Things were lining up to Gods time schedule, unbeknownst to Paula.

In 2015 the Michigan State Police Cold Case Detectives we trying to find out who was the “Highland Park Jane Doe,” the name the Detectives and media dubbed her. Cold Case Detectives receive help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the cost of exhuming Mindy’s body from a Canton Township cemetery in October 2015, to extract DNA in hopes of breaking the case and giving this young girl a name.

Cold Case Detectives kept telling themselves, “There is a chance,” a chance that her DNA could find a hit in the system, but again it was in God’s timing. As time then crept along, there were still no hits on her DNA, and her body still laid in the Michigan, Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. The Highland Park Jane Doe would have to wait just like everyone else.

Police and news reports described the horrific details behind the death of the Highland Park Jane Doe.

Highland Park Jane Doe was found between Cortland and Richton Streets in Highland Park, Michigan, a suburb just 6 miles from Detroit, MI. When found, Jane Doe was wearing a white shirt with yellow smiley faces and red lip prints; a white JXP Designs skirt; a white lace bra; black tennis shoes with white trim, size 8.5; white socks; and a gold-tone women’s wristwatch in the shape of a teddy bear, with a brown leather band. Her fingernails were long and painted purple, and her toenails were covered in pink polish.

According to several stories, Detectives would described her clothes as that of “a five-year-old”, there’s speculation she may have had a disability and been placed in foster care. But her mother and sister said she would never have worn that kind of clothing or had her hair back in a ponytail.

She laid fatally wounded with a shotgun blast to the throat at close range, in an alley behind 387 Cortland Street in Highland Park, Michigan, until her body was found, as the sun began to rise out of the western sky on May 20, 1996.

Residents in the neighborhood told police they had heard a single gunshot in the early morning hours, prior to her discovery, but no eyewitnesses came forward, nor did potential relatives, even though the Highland Park Police Department sought tips and reached out to the media repeatedly.

Detectives believe, because her body was located near the Lodge Freeway, which runs through Detroit and provides access to I-75 that she may have been travelling with her killer at the time of her death. Highland Park Jane Doe was ultimately laid to rest in an unmarked grave one year later, in April 1997 and tagged as Michigan’s “unidentified female No. 17.”

The Gift

In the spring of 2017, Paula’s granddaughter was preparing for her wedding. All the excitement and joy surrounding the upcoming nuptials created a buzz in the air, again fate entered in with a simple little wedding gift called “23andMe DNA Test.” As Paula explained, her granddaughter wanted to learn about her Irish ancestors and that made a great wedding gift. Only then, no one could have imagined where it would lead to, again Paula’s words would ring true, “God’s timing.”

Gary Clevidence passed away in 2021 from Covid, never knowing what happened to his daughter.

DNA Match

Paula’s granddaughter took the DNA in 2021 and the DNA test results not only revealed her Irish and German background, then something unexpected happen 2 years later, a potential DNA match in early in 2023, in a search by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children data base to a missing person named Jane Doe in Michigan, from the 23andMe DNA Test, done in 2021.

Upon receiving this shocking information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, detectives from Highland Park promptly reached out to the granddaughter, who had done the DNA test. With a calm demeanor, they asked her if she had any knowledge of a missing person within her family. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, she redirected the call to her mother, Mindy’s sister, Michelle Persinger.

Calling Paula, she asked, “Are you sitting down?”

Paula replied, “No. Why?”

“Just sit-down Mom!” As she explained what had happened and told her that the Detectives want to talk with her. In that moment, time seemed to freeze, and the world faded away.

Detectives from Highland Park sent a photograph of the 1996 Jane Doe to the Ashland Police Division asked Paula to come and identify if it was her daughter. A grimacing look formed on her face, as she searched her memory.

As Paula held the photograph in her trembling hands, tears of sorrow and the sense of the 27-year burden mingled on her cheeks. It was Mindy. The resemblance was undeniable. The missing piece of the puzzle had finally fallen into place.

However, the journey was not over. The detectives required a DNA sample from Paula to confirm the connection conclusively. Thus, the clock was reset, and the passing of seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and days turned to a month, then two months.

During this time, the investigators tirelessly pursued all leads. Their unwavering dedication finally bore fruit, as the DNA between Highland Park Jane Doe and Paula was officially established. They were one and the same. At last, the mystery of Mindy’s disappearance had been solved.

The truth, though heart-wrenching, brought a sense of closure for Paula. She mourned the loss of her daughter once again, but this time with the knowledge that Mindy Clevidence had been found. She remained grateful for the spark of hope that had flickered within her weary soul all those years.

Paula would graciously say, with a mixture of gratitude and awe, “God directed the detectives to persevere because it has been so many years. It’s a God thing.” She found solace in knowing that divine providence had guided them all along, leading them to this moment of revelation.

As per the family’s request, the remains of Mindy Clevidence were cremated. With utmost reverence, the Highland Park Police Detectives personally traveled to Ohio, carrying Mindy’s urn back to her waiting mother.

It’s the nightmare nobody wants to think about, saying goodbye to your child. Roberts Funeral Home, located in the Ashland County Memorial Park, at 1058 US Route 250 will be her final resting place.

Home, Mindy Clevidence is now home, after all these years a grieving mother gets her daughter back.

A Final Farewell

On Monday, December 11, 2023, Paula Clevidence and her daughter met at Roberts Funeral Home on US Route 250, in Ashland County for a short private ceremony, to give Mindy Clevidence a final resting place.

As the freezing cold wind blew, not hard, but made it feel like a cold knife cutting deeply, I stood outside in front of the mausoleum, waiting for the family to arrive. Two chairs were placed in front of the little boxes called niches, a place to put cremated remains. A little table held the urn containing the cremated remains of Mindy Clevidence.

Mindy’s mother, along with her sister, walked up the short cement sidewalk, stood before the rows of niches, and allowed the tears that had fought so hard for years to escape, run down their cheeks.

Although staying back in the driveway, feeling like I was still intruding, I quietly took a picture. Why? you may ask. Because this story must be told, we can’t forget, we must not forget. There is still another chapter to go with this story. Mindy Clevidence’s killer is still out there; it’s still an open homicide investigation.

Although this milestone in the case is solved, we must bring her killer to justice, so a family that so richly deserves can finally have closure.

Highland Park Police Detectives are still looking for anyone that knew Mindy Clevidence, friends that may have talked to her in 1996, or other kids at the group home who may know who she left with. Please, if you want to provide or request additional information, please contact: Highland Park Police Department, Highland Park, Michigan, (313) 334-9256 or FBI ViCAP, (800) 634-4097

Questions:

1. What Youth Home did Ashland County Juvenile Court send Mindy Clevidence to?

2. Who were the friends Mindy Clevidence meet in Detroit, Michigan?

3. Did anyone around Ashland County hear from Mindy Clevidence in 1995/1996?

After hearing of this story, I reached out to Fox8 News I-Team reporter Peggy Gallek and we were able to speak with Mindy Clevidence mother on Dec 6, 2023. Here is the link to the Fox8 story