Mary Louise Day Crimeline
Mary Louise Day | Assumption of Guilt
Mary Louise Day shortly before she went missing.
February 1968: Mary Louise Day was born in Little Falls, New York to Charles and Charlotte Day.
1976: After some time in foster care, Mary and one of her sisters were returned to their mother Charlotte’s care. By this time, she had remarried a man named William Houle.
1978: The family moved to Hawaii. Shortly after this, Mary’s father died leaving her behind an inheritance she could collect at the age of 18.
Charlotte and William Houle
December 1980: Mary was removed from her home again and placed in protective custody due to accusations of physical abuse.
Spring 1981: Mary was returned to her mother’s care and joined the family in their new home in Seaside, California.
July 1981: Mary’s stepfather William Houle accused the 13 year old of poisoning his dog and beat her. The next morning, she was gone with William and Charlotte saying she ran away.
1992: After 11 years, one of Mary’s sisters reported her missing to the Fort Ord Military Base Police.
1994: Fort Ord shut down, transferring all cold case files to the Seaside police.
1999: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children produced an age progression of Mary Day.
2002: The Seaside police start to look for Mary Day, 21 years after she went missing.
November 2003: Police in Phoenix, Arizona pull over a truck and the woman passenger identifies herself as Mary Day. The ID she had in that name was just a few months old. A DNA test confirmed the woman was the daughter of Charlotte Day.
Mary Day as a child and the woman presenting herself as Mary Day in 2003.
2008: Cadaver dogs in the Seaside, California area led to a house where Charlotte and William Houle previously lived, opening a new private investigation into Mary Day. The conclusion was that the woman posing as Mary Day was a biological child of Charlotte Houle’s who she placed for adoption.
2017: With Mary Day ill with cancer, the acting chief of the Seaside Police decided to settle the matter once and for all. With a new DNA test and more information from Mary, they were able to conclusively say that she was the missing Mary Day.
Sources: 2024 Crimelines Podcast Source List