In the spring of 1985, a young girl named Lamika Tene Manners, just 12 years old, vanished alongside her mother, Barbara Heyward Manners. The last time family members saw them was sometime in May of that year in Brooklyn, New York. After that last contact, a wall of silence fell, and mother and daughter were not seen or heard from by their loved ones again.
At the time of her disappearance, Lamika was described as a young Black female with black hair and brown eyes, standing 5'1' tall and weighing around 90 pounds. Her ears were pierced. The circumstances surrounding when and how they left Brooklyn remain unclear, marking the beginning of a deeply troubling and long-running mystery.
The narrative of Lamika's disappearance takes a grim turn on May 18, 1985, with a horrific discovery in Westport, Connecticut, along the westbound side of Interstate 95. There, the body of a woman was found inside a pile of burning tires. The victim's hands and feet had been removed, complicating identification efforts. For decades, this woman remained a Jane Doe, her identity a mystery that seemed destined to remain unsolved. However, a breakthrough came in November 2024 when, through DNA, the victim was positively identified as Barbara Heyward Manners, Lamika's mother. This crucial identification confirmed a tragic outcome for Barbara but also deepened the concern and amplified the questions regarding the fate of her young daughter.
The identification of her mother after nearly four decades of uncertainty has brought renewed attention to the case of Lamika Manners, but her own story remains hauntingly incomplete. While her mother was found tragically deceased in Connecticut, there has been no sign of Lamika since she was last seen with her mother in New York. The exact date of her disappearance is uncertain, with family recalling seeing her sometime in May 1985, though some records associate the date with the discovery of her mother's remains on May 18, 1985. The case is a heart-wrenching puzzle; a young girl who vanished with her mother, who was then discovered as the victim of a brutal homicide miles away. The investigation into what happened to Lamika continues, a search for answers to where she might be and what befell her after that last sighting with her mother so many years ago.Last Seen: May 18, 1985
