Vanished in the Night: Where is Corey Edkin?

New Columbia, Pennsylvania is a small town in eastern Union County. Residents describe their town, which they affectionately refer to as “Newky,” as the sort of place where everyone knows each other. With less than a thousand residents, it was considered to be calm, quiet, and safe. But residents would wake up on October 12, 1986 to news that would make them question just how safe their town was — and how well they really knew their neighbors.

In 1986, Debbie Wise and her two children were living in New Columbia. They were sharing a house on Second Street with Alberta Sones, who had two children of her own. October 11th had been a normal day for the roommates, and as night fell they began to get their four children ready for bed. Alberta’s children, four-year-old David and two-year-old Samantha, were sleeping in a second floor bedroom. They were joined by Debbie’s four-year-old daughter, Nina. Debbie’s two-year-old son, Corey, was sleeping in his mother’s bed in the front upstairs bedroom. Debbie had checked on the children around 11:00pm and found them all to be sleeping peacefully. Debbie and Alberta were settled in front of the television, but around midnight the women decided that they wanted pizza. There were no stores in New Columbia that stayed open that late, so Debbie decided she would drive to a convenience store in the adjacent town of Milton. Alberta would remain in the home in case any of the children woke up and needed anything.

Although the temperature earlier in the day had been close to 50 degrees, it had been dropping throughout the night and had dipped below freezing by the time Debbie left to get the pizza. It was a short trip, and she got back to the house around 12:40am. As she got out of her car, she was surprised to see that the front door was open. She knew she had closed it behind her, and with no wind that night, it couldn’t have blown open on its own. When she got into the house, Alberta was still watching television, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the front door was open. She said that she hadn’t heard anyone come into or leave the house, and she hadn’t heard anything indicating that any of the children were awake. Debbie went upstairs to check on the children. David, Nina, and Samantha were still sound asleep, but when Debbie entered her own bedroom, the bed was empty and there was no sign of Corey anywhere. She frantically looked around for him, checking the floor and under the bed, but he was definitely not in the room. He hadn’t moved to the room where the other children were sleeping, either. Somehow, without waking up any of the other children — and without Alberta realizing anything was wrong — the little boy had simply disappeared.

By 1:10am, it was clear that Corey was nowhere in the house, so Debbie called police and reported him missing. Because of his young age, police responded immediately. After she told officers about returning home and finding the front door open, their initial assumption was that he had simply wandered away on his own, although no one could understand how he could have gotten past Alberta without her noticing him. Debbie had been gone for only 30 minutes, and called police within 30 minutes of getting back to the house. This meant Corey had only been missing for an hour at the most, and police were optimistic that he couldn’t have gotten too far. They immediately began searching the area for the little boy. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that Corey was not in the immediate area and the search would have to be expanded.

By 5:00am, more than 30 police officers and volunteer firefighters had joined in the search. Because it was so cold, and Corey had only been wearing pajamas, they knew that finding him quickly was imperative. Each minute that passed by put him more at risk of dying from exposure. Bloodhounds were brought in, but they were unable to pick up Corey’s scent in any direction.

Since the house was in close proximity to the Susquehanna River, there was some fear that he may have gotten too close to the river and fallen in. Searchers went up and down the river bank but found nothing. There were no footprints and nothing to indicate anyone had slid into the water. The bloodhounds weren’t able to pick Corey’s scent up there, either.

The police were forced reevaluate their initial assessment — if Corey had simply wandered off on his own, they would have found him by then. They knew that the two-year-old child simply wouldn’t have been able to travel outside of the search radius by himself. They had to consider the possibility that he had been abducted. By 8:00am, it seemed the entire town had heard about Corey’s disappearance, and everyone was stunned. Residents couldn’t believe that something like this could happen in New Columbia, and the entire community rallied around Debbie. Reporters began showing up at the house that morning, but neither Debbie nor Alberta spoke with them.

Once it was determined that Corey had likely been abducted, the investigation kicked into high gear. Detectives needed to learn as much as they could about Corey and his family to see if they could pinpoint any possible reasons someone would have abducted the boy. Young children tend to have very limited interaction with people outside of their own family, and investigators would concentrate on interviewing Corey’s immediate family first.

Corey had been born on June 11, 1984, to James and Debbie Edkin. His parents divorced not long after he was born, and Corey had limited contact with his father. Investigators considered the possibility that James was responsible for Corey’s abduction, but they quickly ruled him out as a suspect. He lived in Muncy, Pennsylvania and had not been anywhere near New Columbia on the night that Corey went missing. Though they were divorced, James and Debbie maintained a cordial relationship and were not involved in any kind of custody dispute.

When investigators interviewed Debbie, she repeated what she had told police on the night Corey went missing. She had left the house around 12:10am, bought pizza and gas at a convenience store, and returned home about a half hour later. In an attempt to verify her story, investigators spoke to employees at the convenience store to see if anyone remembered seeing her that night. They left with something better than an eyewitness account — the store had a video surveillance system. The footage they obtained backed up Debbie’s story. She was seen inside the store, buying a pizza, at the time she said she had been there. Investigators soon eliminated Debbie as a possible suspect.

As the only adult who was present at the time Corey disappeared, Alberta Sones was of particular interest to the detectives. Like Debbie, her account of that night did not vary any from the account she had given police during her initial interview. She had watched television the entire time Debbie was gone, and did not hear anyone come enter or exit the house. Investigators appeared to be somewhat skeptical of her story, and they asked if she would consider taking a polygraph examination about the events of that night. She agreed to take one, and she passed. Several other people close to the family also took polygraphs, and all of them passed as well. The investigation seemed to lose steam at this point, and the baffled detectives admitted they had no idea what had happened to Corey.

After Corey’s disappearance, a truck driver who had been in the New Columbia area claimed that he had seen Corey getting into a car with two women who were wearing big hats. Detectives were unable to determine if this was a credible sighting or not.

Several of Corey’s family members claimed that they had received ransom calls in the days following Corey’s disappearance. Debbie said the caller told her that her son would be sold if she didn’t comply with the caller’s demands. Police put tracing equipment on Debbie’s phone in an attempt to identify the caller, but she didn’t receive any more calls. Corey’s grandmother claimed that she received a ransom call in January of 1991, more than four years after Corey went missing. The identity of the person calling was never determined, and it’s possible the calls were nothing more than a cruel hoax.

More than 30 years later, investigators still have no idea what happened to Corey. Shortly after he went missing, his picture appeared on milk cartons. In May of 1989, detectives placed a home near Harrisburg under surveillance after receiving tips that Corey had been seen there, but they were unable to find anything to confirm these sightings. In 1998, an age-progressed phot of Corey was included in a nationwide mailing aimed at finding missing children, and this triggered calls of possible sightings from all over the country. Detectives followed up on leads from New York to Hawaii with no success. Although the case is still considered to be active, police admit that they haven’t had any new leads in years.

Over the years, many theories about what may have happened to Corey have emerged. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance make the case particularly disturbing — there were three other children and one adult present in the home when he vanished, but not one of them heard a thing. It doesn’t seem possible that someone would have been able to break into the home, make their way to the bedroom Corey was in, grab the sleeping child, and carry him out of the house without anyone noticing. Pennsylvania State Trooper Philip Davis, who spent some time as the lead investigator on the case, told a reporter that he found it “almost impossible the kid got out there without anyone knowing it.” In almost all missing children cases, police look at family members as possible suspects, and this case was no different. From the beginning, there was much speculation that the family was in some way involved, but police have publicly declared that both of Corey’s parents were eliminated as suspects.

Alberta Sones, the only adult present when Corey disappeared, took a lie detector test, and the examiner determined she was telling the truth when she said she had heard nothing unusual that night. But how accurate are polygraphs? While some people do not put much faith in them — and courts refuse to consider test results as evidence — the American Polygraph Association claims the tests are over 90% accurate when administered properly. Critics put the accuracy rate at around 70%. There have been cases where guilty people have managed to pass a polygraph, but it’s more common for innocent people to show signs of deception even when telling the complete truth.

People who were familiar with the layout of the house have said there is no way Corey could have gone out the front door without Alberta noticing. If we assume Alberta was awake and watching television the entire time Debbie was gone, it doesn’t seem possible that Corey left through the front door, either alone or with someone. Debbie told investigators that she had last checked on Corey at around 11:00pm that night. It’s unclear when Alberta saw the boy last. So is it possible he was no longer in the house when Debbie left to pick up the pizza? Some people have speculated that something happened to Corey earlier in the night, and that Debbie disposed of this body somewhere, using the impromptu trip to buy pizza as an alibi. Though this would certainly explain why Alberta didn’t hear anything while Debbie was gone, there is no factual evidence to support this theory.

The alleged ransom calls that were received by the family in 1987 have also caused much speculation. They didn’t provide enough concrete evidence for investigators to determine where the calls were coming from or if the person calling actually had any information about Corey. The fact that the calls ceased as soon as police put a tracer on Debbie’s phone seemed to indicate that the caller had some inside knowledge of how the investigation was progressing, and this caused some to speculate that Debbie had been behind the calls herself. Police investigated but were unable to determine anything about identity of the caller.

Corey’s father, James, told a reporter in 2015 that he believed his son was still alive, but that not knowing anything was the hardest part. Debbie also spoke to the reporter as the 29th anniversary of Corey’s disappearance approached. “I always hope he is safe. It’s hard on the family. I’d love to find him but I don’t want to destroy his life.” Many people were surprised, and a little confused, by her statement. Would a mother really believe that finding her long-lost son would ruin his life? In 1987, Debbie claimed she had received a phone call from someone who told her they would sell Corey if she didn’t agree to their demands. People now wondered if perhaps Debbie had actually sold Corey herself and then reported him missing to cover up her actions. Some saw this as a best case scenario — it would mean that Corey was probably still alive — but investigators were unable to find any evidence to indicate this is what took place. Like all the other leads they had looked at over the past three decades, this one brought them no closer to finding Corey, and he remains listed as a missing person.

Corey James Edkin was two years old at the time of his disappearance, and had light blonde hair and blue eyes. If he’s still alive today he is 36 years old.

If you have any information pertaining to Corey's case, please contact the Pennsylvania State Police in Milton at 570–524–2662. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1–800–4PA-TIPS.