On the afternoon of May 15, 1985, eight-year-old Rima Traxler began her familiar walk home from St. Helen's Elementary School in Longview, Washington. Just two blocks from the safety of her house, the bright third-grader, who was 4'3' and 45 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes, stopped to proudly show a neighbor an art project she had made. Dressed in a pink shirt, a tan-plaid skirt, and a knee-length coat, Rima then continued on her way.
That brief, happy moment with her neighbor would be the last time she was seen. When she failed to arrive home, her mother grew worried and promptly reported her missing, sparking an investigation into a disappearance that would haunt the community for years to come.
The initial investigation brought little information to light, and Rima's case grew cold. A close friend of the Traxler family, Joseph Kondro, was questioned by authorities early on but no evidence linked him to the young girl's disappearance at the time. Rima’s family had established a secret password, 'Unicorn,' to be used in emergencies, a measure they believed would protect her from being lured away by a stranger. For over a decade, Rima's family and the Longview community lived with unanswered questions. Her mother, Dinelle, never gave up hope, utilizing public awareness campaigns like billboards to keep her daughter's memory alive. Rima's face became one of the first to appear on milk cartons in a nationwide effort to find missing children.
A major breakthrough in the case came years later, following the tragic 1997 abduction and murder of another young girl in the area, 12-year-old Kara Rudd. The investigation into Kara's death led police back to Joseph Kondro. Faced with overwhelming evidence in the Rudd case, Kondro agreed to a plea bargain in 1999 to avoid the death penalty. As part of this deal, he confessed to the murder of Rima Traxler. Kondro chillingly revealed that he knew the family's secret password, 'Unicorn,' and used it to trick Rima into his vehicle. He admitted to taking her to a remote swimming hole on Germany Creek, where he strangled her and buried her body in a shallow grave. Despite this confession and subsequent searches of the area he indicated, Rima’s remains have never been recovered. Kondro, who was also a suspect in the 1982 murder of another child, was sentenced to a 55-year prison term and died of natural causes in 2012, taking any final secrets about the location of Rima's body with him.Last Seen: May 15, 1985
