Key facts
- Name: Cathy Moulton
- Born: June 28, 1955
- Age at disappearance: 16
- Last seen: September 24, 1971, walking down Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine
- Location: Portland, Maine
- Description: 5’2″–5’4″, about 98–100 lbs, light brown hair, blue eyes, thick eyeglasses; wore a navy coat, navy pant dress, and brown shoes; had braces (four eye teeth removed), scars on both feet from wart removal, a white spot on her left elbow, and flat moles on her back; carried a brown leather Mexican clutch containing a house key, two tubes of toothpaste, and small change — not enough for bus fare
- Status: Still missing; cold case
- Investigating agency: Portland Police Department — 1-207-874-8479 or 1-207-874-8575
The errands she never came back from
On the morning of Friday, September 24, 1971, sixteen-year-old Cathy Moulton had plans. That evening she was going to a dance at the YWCA in Portland, Maine. Before that, she had errands: her father, Roy Moulton, dropped her off on Cumberland Avenue around 1 p.m. so she could buy pantyhose — she had a run in her nylons — and toothpaste.
Cathy stopped at a music store on Forest Avenue to visit a friend who worked there. Then she was seen walking down Forest Avenue, heading in the direction of home, about a mile and a half away. She never arrived.
In her brown leather Mexican clutch: a house key. Two tubes of toothpaste. A little change — not enough for bus fare. A girl who intended to walk home, come back out for a dance that night, and be sixteen. That’s the last confirmed picture of Cathy Moulton.
A runaway — or a rush to judgment
When Roy Moulton went to the Portland police, the desk sergeant told him to wait 48 hours. The working assumption: she was a runaway. It was 1971. Teenage girls who didn’t come home were filed under “runaway” almost by default, and Cathy’s case was no exception.
That assumption shaped everything. No immediate search. No urgency. A sixteen-year-old with braces and thick glasses, carrying toothpaste for a dance she was excited about, was written off as a girl who’d decided to leave — and the trail went cold in the most critical hours.
Cathy had never run away before. Her father knew it. But in 1971, a father’s certainty counted for less than a sergeant’s filing system.
The Cadillac and the potato fields
In the weeks after she vanished, strange threads surfaced. Cathy had a friend named Lester Everett, who was connected to a stolen blue 1963 Cadillac. There were unconfirmed sightings of Cathy in the potato fields of Aroostook County — far northern Maine, hours from Portland. In October 1971, there was a reported sighting at Tobique Point in New Brunswick, Canada.
None of these leads panned out. None were confirmed. But they were chased, because in 1971 there was nothing else to chase.
Decades passed. Cathy’s case became one of Maine’s oldest open missing-child files. Between 2021 and 2024, multiple podcasts took up her story, re-examining the runaway label and the early investigation with modern eyes. The Portland Police Department still lists her as missing (Case #7160141), and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children still carries her poster.
The case the podcasts reopened
Between 2021 and 2024, multiple true-crime podcasts took up Cathy Moulton’s story, and they all circled the same outrage: a sixteen-year-old girl with braces and thick glasses, carrying toothpaste for a dance she was excited about, was written off as a runaway before the sun went down on the day she vanished.
The podcasters did what the 1971 investigation didn’t. They mapped the walk down Forest Avenue — a mile and a half from the music store to home, along a commercial street in daylight. They questioned the 48-hour wait the desk sergeant imposed on Roy Moulton, a delay that in modern policing would be unthinkable for a missing sixteen-year-old. They re-examined the Lester Everett thread and the stolen blue 1963 Cadillac, the Aroostook County potato-field sightings, the Tobique Point report from across the Canadian border — leads that were chased half-heartedly in 1971 and never resolved.
What’s striking, listening to the modern coverage, is how little the facts have changed and how much the interpretation has. In 1971, every ambiguous detail was read as evidence she’d run: the friend at the music store, the walk home, the dance she never attended. Today, the same details read as evidence of a girl living her ordinary life until something interrupted it. The clutch with the house key and the two tubes of toothpaste — in 1971, just the contents of a purse. Today, the signature of a girl who fully intended to come home.
Cathy’s case is one of the oldest open missing-child files in Maine. The Portland Police Department still carries it. NCMEC still carries her poster. She would be 71 now — a grandmother, maybe a great-grandmother. The podcasts keep her name spoken aloud, which is the least the present can do for a girl the past filed away.
Theories
Abduction
A sixteen-year-old girl walking alone down Forest Avenue in 1971 — a busy commercial street — could have been forced into a car in seconds. The unconfirmed sightings far from Portland, if any were real, would fit someone taken and moved. Evidence level: No witnesses to an abduction have ever been found; no suspects named. But the runaway classification was never based on evidence either.
She was taken by someone she knew
The Lester Everett thread — a friend, a stolen blue 1963 Cadillac — has drawn the most speculation. Evidence level: Circumstantial at best. No evidence has ever tied Everett, or the Cadillac, to Cathy’s disappearance. He is not known to have been charged in connection with the case, and any living person named is presumed innocent.
Runaway
The original police theory. Evidence level: Cathy had no history of running away, took nothing a runaway would take, left for errands she never completed, and was never seen or heard from again in more than fifty years. This theory has not aged well.
The sightings were real
The Aroostook County and Tobique Point sightings, if genuine, would mean Cathy survived at least weeks after September 24. Evidence level: All unconfirmed; sightings in high-profile cases are frequently mistaken.
Have information?
Contact the Portland Police Department at 1-207-874-8479 or 1-207-874-8575, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- June 28, 1955 — Cathy Moulton is born.
- September 24, 1971, ~1:00 p.m. — Her father drops her on Cumberland Avenue in Portland to buy pantyhose and toothpaste before a YWCA dance that evening.
- September 24, 1971, afternoon — Cathy visits a friend at a music store on Forest Avenue; she is last seen walking down Forest Avenue toward home. She never arrives.
- September 24–26, 1971 — Portland police treat her as a runaway; her father is told to wait 48 hours.
- Fall 1971 — Unconfirmed sightings reported in Aroostook County potato fields and at Tobique Point, New Brunswick; the Lester Everett/stolen Cadillac thread is pursued. None are confirmed.
- 2021–2024 — Multiple podcasts re-examine the case.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Cathy Moulton still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Cathy Moulton remains missing. She vanished in September 1971 and has never been found.
Was Cathy Moulton ever found?
No. No trace of Cathy has ever been found in more than five decades.
What happened to Cathy Moulton?
She was last seen walking down Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine, on September 24, 1971, after running errands before a YWCA dance. She never made it home. Police initially classified her as a runaway; modern re-examinations of the case question that judgment.
How old would Cathy Moulton be today?
She was born June 28, 1955, so she would be 71 years old in 2026.
Why did police think Cathy Moulton was a runaway?
In 1971, it was standard practice to classify missing teenage girls as runaways. The desk sergeant told her father to wait 48 hours. She had no history of running away and took nothing with her that a runaway would take.
What did Cathy Moulton look like?
She was 5’2″–5’4″, about 98–100 pounds, with light brown hair, blue eyes, and thick eyeglasses. She wore braces, a navy coat and navy pant dress, and brown shoes, and carried a brown leather Mexican clutch.
Sources
Official / law enforcement:
– Portland Police Department — 1-207-874-8479 or 1-207-874-8575 (Case #7160141)
– National Center for Missing & Exploited Children — 1-800-843-5678
Reference:
– 411gina.org — missing persons flyer for Cathy Moulton (cases archive)
Media:
– True-crime podcasts covering the case (2021–2024)
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.
Correction (Oct 2026): An earlier version of this file listed only one Portland Police Department tip number (1-207-874-8575). Coverage of the case cites both 1-207-874-8479 and 1-207-874-8575 for the Portland PD; both are now listed.