FROM THE VAULT: Disappearances of Hearin, Tullos, Levitz, Lewis still unsolved

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - On the same summer day in 1988, two people in Jackson disappeared and have not been seen since.

Then-mayor Dale Danks and police revealed details of the kidnapping of Annie Laurie Hearin on July 28. The wife of longtime oil, banking, and insurance executive Robert Hearin had been taken from their home in the Woodland Hills subdivision.

A crudely-typed note implied that Robert Hearin owed money to several companies from a previous business deal. He immediately sent them money, but his wife was not returned. Some of the recipients even sent the money back.

Robert Hearin received a note from his wife in the mail after the abduction. Written in her handwriting, the note urged him to comply with the kidnappers’ demands. Even though he did, she was never found.

The case was featured on NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries,” which generated many calls with tips. In 1990, Newton Alfred Winn was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap Annie Laurie Hearin, though he always denied any involvement.

To this day, no one has said what really happened to her.

On the same day of Hearin’s abduction, Daffany Tullos, 7, disappeared from her grandparents’ home on Azalea Circle in northwest Jackson after going for a walk.

If she is still alive, she would be 42.

In 1995, Jackie Levitz, widow of Levitz Furniture founder Ralph Levitz, disappeared from her home overlooking the Mississippi River in Vicksburg.

Blood was on her bed, which had been stripped of its sheets. The 62-year-old had moved to Vicksburg from Palm Beach just one month before she vanished.

Martin Pace was elected sheriff shortly after Levitz was abducted and continued the effort to solve the case.

“We’re continuing to follow-up on tidbits of information,” he told WLBT in 1996. “Unfortunately, none of those bits of information have proven to be that vital link that we’re all looking for.”

In 2014, Myra Lewis, 2, disappeared from her neighborhood in the Camden area of Madison County. A frantic search turned up nothing.

“I pledged to that family that I’m not gonna quit until we find Myra,” Sheriff Randy Tucker told WLBT shortly after Lewis disappeared.

These are just four examples of high-profile cases that remain unsolved. Should that change, WLBT will report it.

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