A 14-year-old girl disappears after being dropped off at home late one night In the late hours of a warm August night in 1996, 14-year-old Cayce Lynn McDaniel, a white female, vanished from her home in Milan, Tennessee, leaving behind a scene that was both ordinary and unsettling. She had just returned from a back-to-school party at her church, dropped off by a chaperone who saw her safely inside. When her mother arrived home between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m., she found the television on in Cayce's room, the clothes she had worn to the party lying out, and a bowl of cookies
and milk on the floor. The back door was ajar, but there were no signs of a struggle. It appeared as though Cayce had settled in for the night before disappearing without a trace.
For years, the case of the missing high school freshman grew cold, her family left with unanswered questions. Investigators initially looked into a possible suspect seen with a girl resembling Cayce, but he was never identified. The investigation eventually focused on a man Cayce knew, Finis Ewin 'Pete' Hill, whom she called 'Uncle Pete'. Hill, a friend of Cayce's mother and her boyfriend, had a lengthy criminal record. He had been a suspect since 1997, but his identity was not publicly released until 2018. It was theorized that Hill may have gone to the McDaniel residence with ill intentions toward Cayce's mother, but found the young girl there alone instead. His wife had initially provided him with an alibi for the night Cayce disappeared, but later admitted it was false.
In October 2019, more than two decades after Cayce was last seen, a grand jury indicted Finis Hill on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated rape in connection with her disappearance and presumed death. The case, however, did not go to a full trial. In August 2022, Hill, then 70 years old, entered a 'best interest plea' to the lesser charges of criminal responsibility to commit second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. This type of plea does not require an admission of guilt but acknowledges the likelihood of a conviction at trial. As part of the agreement, the more serious charges were dropped, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with a requirement to serve the full term. The plea deal also stipulated his cooperation in the ongoing efforts to locate Cayce's remains, which have never been found.
