Left: Ruth circa, 1982
Right: Age Progressed to age 49
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
Missing Since: August 19, 1982
Missing From: Modesto, Stanislaus County, California
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: February 25, 1966
Age: 16 years old
Height and Weight: 5’5″ and 84 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian Female, Brown hair, Brown eyes, Ruth has a small tattoo of a cross symbol on the web of her right hand between her thumb and index finger, both of her her ears are pierced, Ruth is said to walk bowlegged and she may use the nickname “Ruthie”
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A cream colored t-shirt with writing inscription on it, a pair of Levi’s jeans, Ruth was wearing a gold chained necklace with a cross on it and she was also wearing approximately 4 to 5 rings on her fingers when she disappeared
NCMEC Number: 601797
Details of Disappearance
Ruth was last seen in Modesto, California on August 19th 1982. She lived in an apartment complex on Clayton Avenue with her legal guardian, Brenda Barone and her nine year old son. She previously lived with her mother and nine siblings in the same apartment complex until Barone got legal custody of Ruth in 1980. Her parents were divorced and her mother lived a transient life style.
According to Barone, Ruth left the family home at 8:45 pm to walk to Sam’s Food City, a convenience store located at Carver Road and Teresa Street. The store was three blocks away from Leamon’s home and she frequently visited the store alone or with a girlfriend. According to a clerk who worked at the store and frequently saw Ruth there as a customer, she made it there and purchased a soda before leaving the store to walk back to her residence.
Barone had work on the night of the girl’s disappearance and was gone when she was supposed to return home. She did not realize Ruth failed to return home until 7:00 am the next morning and reported her missing afterwards. She was never seen or heard from again. All of her relatives and friends in the area were checked out but none of them knew of Leamon’s whereabouts.
Ruth was supposed to spend the friday night after her disappearance with a friend but she didn’t make it to those plans and didn’t tell the friend of any plans to leave home or anything.
Police initially looked into the possibility that Ruth had simply run away from home. However, the possibility is very unlikely as Ruth had no prior history of running away and Barone said there were no problems at the home when she vanished. She also took no extra clothing or personal belongings with her when she left home that night which leads investigators to doubt any possibility she planned her disappearance.
They instead suspect Ruth was abducted as she walked home that night. Earlier during the day she disappeared, Ruth had become acquainted with two men who were in their 30s and had made plans to meet them at the convenience store where she was last seen. It’s possible they all made plans to do drugs together but this hasn’t been confirmed.
Some reports state witnesses in the area saw Ruth being taken by the same two men in a car as she was walking home that night. Police immediately named the two men as suspects in Ruth’s suspected abduction and they were taken into police custody seventeen hours after she vanished to be questioned about her whereabouts.
The two men were released due to lack of evidence and both have denied that they were involved in Ruth’s disappearance. The two suspects have not been publicly identified. Nonetheless, police believe she was abducted by them or got into their vehicle that night as she walked home. They have never been charged with any crime related to the case, however.
Ruth’s family and friends spent many years searching for her. Brenda Barone moved away from the Clayton Avenue apartment complex a few months after Ruth disappeared. She and her son had plans to go to Alaska and live with relatives. Ruth was to accompany them as well but she vanished before this could happened. Instead, Barone sent her son to Alaska alone and stayed in Modesto to stay close to the search for Leamon. She stated she sent her son away because she feared he might be abducted as well.
Barone kept in contact with police to check for updates about Ruth’s case and she made fliers with her picture which she distributed to stores, laundromats, and any other potential places where someone might spot her. The local community also helped in searching for Ruth and the Modesto Bee Secret Witness Program offered a $1,000 reward for any information leading to her safe return. The reward did not lead to any substantial leads in the case.
Brenda also attempted to contact private groups that helped parents locate their missing children but many of them charged money for their services and Barone could not afford it. In January of 1984 The Missing Children’s Project, a private nonprofit group, was created to help people find their missing children. The director of the group, Melvey Brown, found out about Ruth’s disappearance in the spring and contacted Barone to offer her services.
Barone said she felt happy to have help with finding Ruth as she felt she was mostly alone in her efforts to locate her. Brenda recalled how she heard that several dairy companies in the United States were going to print pictures of missing children on the side panels of their milk cartons so that everyone in the country can see them and possibly recognize them if they are out in public. Once she heard this, she felt it was important to get Ruth’s photo on the milk cartons.
Brenda contacted several dairy companies and asked about getting Ruth’s photo put on their cartons but got nowhere. A public relations officer at one company even told her they were more concerned about their product then putting the pictures on them. That same company ended up joining the movement to publicize missing children on their product a few weeks later.
Eventually, Ruth’s photo appeared on the sides of milk cartons and grocery bags in 1985 as part of an effort by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to bring more public awareness to the issue of missing children. While the milk carton movement did help to reunite some missing children with their loved ones, Ruth’s case did not recieve any substantial leads as a result of the effort but it led to greater public awareness about her abduction and the disappearances of other children across the country.
On February 25th 1985, those closest to Ruth as well as Melvey Brown organized a rally to honor her 19th birthday and to help bring more awareness to her disappearance. The event was held at the Mancini Bowl in Graceada Park in Modesto and helium balloons were to be released as symbols of hope for Ruth’s return. Two of her older sisters attended the rally and turned to television cameras to let Ruth know they loved her and hoped she was safe wherever she was.
Eventually, Ruth’s case became cold and few leads were coming in about her possible whereabouts. On October 14th 2010, the Modesto Police Department with her family’s support asked the Governor’s Office for $50,000 to put towards a reward fund for any information leading to a resolution in Ruth’s case or the arrests of those responsible for her abduction. The reward does not expire and will be paid to anyone who gives credible information leading to an arrest and conviction in a California state court.
The reward led to increased publicity about her disappearance and police began receiving more leads about her whereabouts and suspects involved in her disappearance. In 2012, investigators announced they were looking at two new suspects in relation to Ruth’s presumed abduction. The two men, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, were better known as the Speed Freak Killers. They were a serial killer duo who terrorized the state of California between the 1984 and 1999.
The two were suspected in various other disappearances and murders throughout the state. According to reports, Ruth knew Herzog before her disappearance and traveled with him and another friend to the Calaveras County Frog Jump prior to her disappearance. There is no other evidence to indicate the two had any other contact afterwards but due to Herzog’s history, the two men have been viewed as potential suspects in the case.
It should be noted that Shermantine and Herzog were not the men Ruth made plans to see that night. They were both teenagers at the time and Herzog didn’t graduate from high school until two years after Ruth went missing. The possibility is not being ruled out but searches of their known dumping sites for victims yielded no evidence that Ruth was there or had been killed by the two. Herzog has since committed suicide while serving his prison sentence for the murders he and Shermantine were charged with.
There was also speculation that the two might’ve been involved in the abduction of Susan Bender who was from Modesto, California like Ruth. Bender was last seen entering a green van outside of a Greyhound bus depot in Modesto on April 25th 1986. She has never been found but is presumed deceased by police. In 2023, police arrested a man they had long suspected in the case and charged him with Susan’s abduction and murder. Her body has not been found and there’s no evidence the man linked to her death is involved in Ruth’s case.
Investigators strongly believe the men Ruth intended to meet on the night of her disappearance were ultimately responsible for what happened to her. Due to the ongoing investigation, neither man has been identified by officials and the two have since left Modesto; one was reported to have moved to Alaska afterwards. Since the case is not closed and no evidence of a crime has been found, the district attorney’s office has asked authorities to not release their names for the sake of the investigation.
At the time of her disappearance, Ruth was a sophomore student at Davis High School and her teachers recalled that she tried very hard to do well in school. She was learning to read and was said to have enjoyed it very much. By 1982, she had raised many of her grades to respectable marks and one teacher recalled how she got a B on a book report. She stated it was the first book she had read and she was so proud or the grade that she taped the paper to the refrigerator at her residence.
Ruth was also making friends and Brenda Barone recalled she was feeling comfortable at her home. Those who knew them attributed Ruth’s growth and progress to her living situation with Barone. After she vanished, Brenda had to take time off of work due to the stress of the case and because she worried constantly about Ruth.
Her family has been deeply devastated by her disappearance. Ruth had seven siblings at the time and all of them still hope to learn what happened to her that night. They stated she loved softball, swimming with her family at Modesto Reservoir, and skating at the former Roller King skate rink near Briggsmore Avenue and Prescott Road. Her sisters described her as outgoing and friendly but also self conscious.
Despite living with Barone, Ruth’s mother still lived in town and she was routinely visited by her sisters. One of her sisters remembers just two days before her disappearance, Ruth had gone to see the movie “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial” and told them all about it when she came over to her mother’s house. None of them believe Ruth left on her own accord and her sisters believe she is deceased.
Ruth’s disappearance remains unsolved and foul play is highly suspected in the case. There is currently a $50,000 reward as mentioned previously which does not expire and will be rewarded to whomever can provide credible information leading to a resolution in Ruth’s case.
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Modesto Police Department 209-572-9500
Source Information
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children