In the winter of 1969, two-year-old Anna Marie Arguello vanished from her home in Frankfort, Indiana, where she lived with her mother, Anita Maria Vega, her stepfather, Luis Vega Sr., and her six siblings. For more than two decades, her disappearance remained a secret, unknown to law enforcement. The silence was broken in the fall of 1992 when Anna's older sister, Margarita, then 33 years old, walked into a police station to report her little sister's disappearance from over twenty
years prior. Margarita's decision to come forward was prompted by recurring nightmares of Anna's face, pleading with her. She had been receiving treatment for anxiety at a mental health facility in California, where therapy sessions about her sister's death spurred the staff to encourage her to contact the authorities.
Margarita recounted a harrowing story of the day her sister disappeared. She told investigators that their mother had subjected Anna Marie to severe abuse, including beatings and food deprivation, as punishment for bedwetting. On that fateful day, Margarita alleged their mother forced two-year-old Anna into a cold bath, holding her head underwater until she drowned. Hours later, their mother, Anita, allegedly wrapped Anna's body in an Army blanket and placed it in a cardboard box from the turkey farm where their stepfather, Luis, worked. Margarita said she overheard her stepfather telling her mother that he had buried the box near the railroad trestles in Frankfort. Margarita also told police that in 1985, her mother showed her a sack containing dirt and bones, claiming they were Anna Marie's remains, and later said she had buried the sack in a fresh grave at a local cemetery. Margarita explained that fear had kept her silent for so long, as her mother had threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone what had happened.
The investigation into Anna Marie's disappearance was fraught with challenges from the start. With so much time having passed, there was very little physical evidence to prove Anna had even existed, aside from her birth certificate and a single photograph. When first questioned, Anita Vega denied ever having a daughter named Anna Marie. Confronted with the birth certificate, her story changed multiple times; she first implicated Margarita, then her deceased husband Luis, and finally claimed to have found Anna dead in her bed. She alleged that Luis, who had passed away in the mid-1980s, had been abusive and feared deportation, which is why they never reported the death. While most of Margarita's siblings initially denied her account, one sister, Guadalupe Thomas, was later charged with perjury for lying to a grand jury. She eventually pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their mother, partially corroborating Margarita's story by admitting she had seen Anna's body. In October 1993, Anita Vega was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Despite the defense's attempts to discredit Margarita, the jury returned a guilty verdict after only 15 minutes of deliberation. Anita was sentenced to one to ten years in prison and served three. The case is a tragic story of a young life lost, with the truth concealed for over two decades. Despite the conviction, Anna Marie Arguello's body has never been found.Last Seen: Nov 1, 1969
