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It’s always especially heartbreaking when a young child disappears.
And that’s exactly what happened on Thursday April 19, 2012 in Rockport, Massachusetts. Two year old Caleigh, her four year old sister, Elizabeth (Lizzie), and her mother, Allison Hammond.
Allison took her young girls to the beach for the day to play. She was in the midst of a divorce with the girl’s dad, Anthony Harrison. While they played on that beach, the girls tossed a ball that got away from them. Allison went to get the ball, and when she returned, Caleigh was nowhere to be found. Caleigh’s sister only was able to tell her mother that Caleigh was ‘gone’.
Caleigh was a sweet girl, always smiling and family has said she was not adventurous or the type of child to wander. So her disappearance immediately frightened her mother.
Notably, why would a mother leave her two young children alone, near what was said to be a dangerous area? The spot is near an estuary that was emptying into the ocean as the tide went out. Seas were reported to be 10 to 12 feet with strong rip currents.
A search ensued, but there was no sign of Caleigh of what may have happened to her. Initially, police believed she may have been abducted as shortly after the incident, sister Lizzie said she saw a ‘Strange Man’ walking around. She said he had a beard and was smoking a cigarette. However, there were no other witnesses on the beach to corroborate this sighting.
