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A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? The Disappearance of Tracy Byrd
She vanished, but then her mother was found murdered. Did Jean Byrd get too close to the truth — and was the truth too close to home?
Tracy Byrd from Pennsylvania disappeared on March 7th 1983. Her mother Jean’s live-in boyfriend Paul Greenwald said he dropped her off as usual at Bensalem High School and saw her walking through the rain to the doors of the building as though she was about to enter.
However, 14-year-old Tracy never showed up at school that day. In fact, she had never intended to go at all. Unbeknown to her family, she had been suspended from classes in the ninth grade for reasons that have never been made clear.
Until school administrators met with her mother, she wouldn’t be permitted to return — but the teenager hadn’t broached the subject with Jean yet and was instead trying to keep up appearances.
But when the end of the day rolled around and Tracy still hadn’t reappeared, Jean realised something was wrong. A missing persons report was filed and police started to investigate.
Unfortunately, as is the case in so many disappearances from this era, detectives initially thought Tracy was a runaway. They heard that she had been suspended…
