I hope the Wilson family gets a miracle- that somehow, after 32 years, Kelly Dae Wilson is found alive and unharmed.

Sadly, that is extremely unlikely, and perhaps what I should hope for is justice or even just closure for her family and friends.

Kelly has been missing from Gilmer, Texas since 1992, and what (or who) could have happened to her is completely unknown.

Tragically,  the investigation into her disappearance was botched by a special prosecutor and two overstepping Texas Department of Human Services (TDHS) employees who bought into the Satanic Panic of the early 1990s.

Or could they have been right all along?

Read More: Texas Rangers Solve Decades Old Murder Using DNA Technology

The Facts

According to The Charley Project:

Kelly was last seen at approximately 8:30 p.m. in Gilmer, Texas on January 5, 1992. She was leaving her place of employment, Northeast Texas Video on Buffalo Street, and heading to the bank around the corner to make her usual night deposit.

The bank's security cameras showed that an individual did make the night deposit, but it is unclear whether or not the person was Kelly. She has never been heard from again.

Kelly's car was discovered later in the evening in her employer's parking lot. One of the vehicle's tires had been slashed. The other three tires were intact. All of Kelly's personal belongings, including her purse, were inside the car, but her keys were missing.

The Fictions?

According to legal documents the blame for Kelly's disappearance fell on the Kerr/ Hicks family- who had their children placed into foster homes following sexual abuse allegations.

TDHS officer Ann Goar had been assigned to the family in 1990 based on pretty solid evidence (including medical examinations and letters) that the children had been abused by a family relative.

Read More: Missing Mary: A Look At The Oldest Unsolved Cold Case In Texas

Once in foster homes, the children began to speak of their abuse, including how they were raped by their parents, grandparents, and strangers.

They told of blood, the devil, masks, and knives, all in connection with their sexual abuse. Lastly, they told graphically of the murder and dismemberment of babies and children at the hands of their parents and grandparents.

Goar and fellow TDHS officer Debbie Minshew claimed the children gave these descriptions spontaneously, however, it was later revealed that the kids were also subjected to "vigorous and coercive questioning."

That could have swayed the children into giving the answers the TDHS officers were hoping for, that their family was abusing them in a ritualistic, elaborate, and Satanic way.

It was that questioning that made the state drop the child abuse charges against the family- because the children had been rendered unreliable witnesses.

During all these "tales" the children led investigators to “R.S.,” an underaged male who claimed he saw the Kerr adults rape and murder Kelly Wilson in a storage shed.

Because of the tips provided by R.S., the Kerr's property was investigated, with some promising leads. Cadaver dogs hit on a toolbox containing a blue bag, a red shed, and three shallow grave-like depressions in the soil.

Read More: The Tragic Tale Of Debra Mackey, Texas Woman Found Headless

The shed had been suspiciously washed and repainted- and contained a shovel with blood on it.

Another witness told investigators to look in Danny Kerr's backyard- where investigators found bone fragments and "two devil masks, two knives, a bayonet, a blood-stained mattress cover, and a long machete."

Based on these findings members of the family were arrested, imprisoned, and indicted by a grand jury.

Seems like a slam dunk forensically, right? However, remember this is the early 1990s and that this is a very small town.  And even today, it is very difficult to prosecute a murder case with no body.

It also didn't help that special prosecutor Ronald Scott Lyford had lumped a hard-working, loyal local police sergeant James York Brown into the charges against the family- likely as retaliation.

Read More: At Large: Meet The Only Woman Still On Texas Most Wanted List

Brown had been skeptical that the murder of Kelly had anything to do with the Kerrs.  According to legal documents:

Lyford told Brown that Lyford was now investigating the disappearance of Kelly Wilson, that he did not want Brown interfering, and that if Brown interfered, "we're going to have a problem."

Because the investigation had been so badly botched,  the Texas Attorney General's office took over and dismissed all charges in 1995.

And so, to this day, we don't know if poor Kelly was murdered in the storage shed- or if something entirely different happened to her.

Hopefully, somebody knows something, and they'll come forward.