SIDNEY — The family of Lakeisha Nichole Archie, a Sidney woman who has been missing since 2002, is seeking help from the public about her whereabouts.
Archie’s mother, Elizabeth Immel, is hoping someone who knows anything about her daughter’s disappearance will step forward and provide information.
According to Immel, her daughter was a hard working, single, 22-year-old woman who disappeared after she walked home to her Park Street apartment from her place just down the alley on Pomeroy Avenue on a Saturday evening in 2002. Archie came by to borrow some movies for the night and afterward was never seen or heard from again.
“She said, ‘Mom, I love you and I’ll talk to you tomorrow,’ and I said ‘OK’ and I walked to the door to make sure she was walking toward to the way she went home,” as it began to get dark Immel said.
Immel said she spoke to her daughter almost everyday and after a few days of no contact or being unable to reach her on her cellphone, she knew something was very wrong. Once her job called to find out why Archie wasn’t reporting to work Immel became very worried.
“She would not just get up and leave. She never, she would never do this — just not call or just walk away. She was a hard worker and had a job,” Immel said.
Archie’s disappearance has remained a mystery for nearly two decades and there are still no named suspects in the case. Immel said police did not find the movies her daughter borrowed nor any of her blood anywhere.
“It’s a mystery,” said Sidney Police Capt. Jerry Tangeman of Archie’s disappearance. “It’s sad and definitely suspicious.”
Social media wasn’t as prevalent in 2002 as it is today, he noted. No body or any evidence of foul play has been found by police. Sidney Police has some of Archie’s possessions which they keep as some evidence on her, but otherwise no trace of has been found since she left her mother’s home that Saturday night.
Tangeman said Archie had an off again/on again boyfriend whom police spoke with along with other suspects and followed up on leads, but no direct connection could be made to her disappearance.
According to the Ohio Attorney General’s website on missing adult persons, Archie was dropped off at her residence in the vicinity of Park Street and Buckeye Avenue and was never seen again. She was possibly wearing a multi-colored T-shirt and jeans. She was wearing either white Adidas with red stripes or blue Nikes with a front zipper and a patent leather heel. She has a tattoo of her name, “Lakeisha,” on the side of her neck in black ink, a tattoo of a black panther on her left forearm and tattoos of claws on each breast.
Archie would be 41 years old today. She is a black female with brown eyes, is 5-foot 5-inches tall, and weighed 170 pounds with black hair when she was last seen.
“I have been through so much in the last 17 years. I have cried and cried,” Immel said. “Please, if anyone knows anything, please call Sidney Police.”
Anyone with any information about Archie’s disappearance is asked to contact Tangeman at the Sidney Police Department at 937-498-2351.
