Trudy Appleby

Case background and investigation

Trudy Appleby was 11 when she disappeared from Moline, Illinois, on August 21, 1996. According to KWQC, she had asked her father, Dennis Appleby, if she could go swimming that day and he said no, but police believe she made other plans. She was seen getting into an older-model gray vehicle with a man, and she has not been seen since. Her body has never been found.

The case went unsolved for decades. In August 2017 Moline police named William "Ed" Smith as a person of interest, saying he had access to a vehicle matching the one described by witnesses and that the vehicle was scrapped soon after the disappearance, KWQC reported. Smith had died in December 2014. In October 2017 police excavated an old home site on Campbell's Island after a tip but recovered nothing, and in January 2019 Moline police seized a boat thought to be linked to the case, which the FBI examined at its Springfield laboratory.

In August 2020 police named two more persons of interest, David Whipple and Jamison Fisher. Whipple later died. Neither Smith nor Whipple was ever charged.

On August 14, 2025, a Henry County grand jury indicted Fisher, then 50, on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death, KWQC reported. According to the Henry County State's Attorney, prosecutors allege he strangled the girl in Henry County; KWQC reported that prosecutors say the motive was a drug debt owed by her father. Kidnapping could not be charged because the statute of limitations had run out. At the time of the indictment he was being held on a probation violation.

Pretrial proceedings continued through 2026. On July 29, 2026, the judge ruled that most of the prosecution's key witnesses could testify, with limits on some and four barred entirely, KWQC reported. At a hearing in late September 2026, Fisher waived his right to a jury trial and chose to have Judge Norma Kauzlarich decide the case; the judge suggested a trial in late February or early March 2027. A hearing on a prosecution motion to hold him in contempt was set for November 18, 2026. Fisher has not been convicted and is presumed innocent.