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CHAPTER 8

Raleigh, North Carolina Wednesday, July 10, 2024

AS MIDNIGHT APPROACHED, SLOAN SWITCHED FROM LOVER BOY TO Diet Dr. Pepper as she and James dug into her lineage. Her small kitchen table was littered with pages they had printed off the Internet as they scoured websites looking for information about the Margolis family that went missing in 1995. The family’s disappearance had been front-page news throughout the country, and cover-worthy fodder for every grocery store tabloid.

“Baby Charlotte,” James said as he stared at his laptop. “The tabloids called you baby Charlotte. Look at this.”

On James’s monitor was an old image from the cover of Events Magazine, one of the country’s most popular publications. On it was a photo of Preston and Annabelle Margolis holding their infant daughter, Charlotte. Sloan’s stomach dropped when she looked at Annabelle Margolis. The resemblance to herself was shocking.

The headline read:

Up and Vanished

Where Are Baby Charlotte and Her Parents?

Sloan went back to her own computer. She, too, had pulled up photos and articles from 1995.

“It wasn’t just Events Magazine,” she said. “The Margolis family was on the covers of People, the National Enquirer, and The Globe, to name just a few I see here.”

“Your adoptive parents never mentioned anything like this to you?”

“No, of course not,” Sloan said. “When I told them I was doing a genealogy search, they were all for it. They even asked me to share whatever information I found about my birth parents.” Sloan looked up from her computer. “How accurate is the type of DNA search you did, by the way?”

“Very. There’s a ninety-nine point nine percent chance you are a descendent of the Margolis family.”

They both went back to their laptops.

“It wasn’t just the tabloids, either,” James said. “The story also made it onto the covers of legitimate papers like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and the Washington Post.”

James turned his computer so that Sloan could see the front pages of the papers he’d found. She pulled his laptop closer and clicked on a link to a New York Times article.

The Mysterious Disappearance of the Margolis Family

July 7, 1995

CEDAR CREEK, NEVADA—The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Preston and Annabelle Margolis, along with their two-month-old daughter, Charlotte, continues as the investigation enters its third day. Nevada state investigators, as well as the FBI, have been brought in to assist the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office in the search for the missing family.

“We are following several leads at the moment,” Harrison County Sheriff Sandy Stamos said. “And we are using every possible tool available to us to search for this young couple and their daughter.”

The last time the Margolis family was seen was on the Fourth of July during the “Split the Creek” Independence Day gala in Cedar Creek. Three days later and there are still no clues to what happened to the family or where they might be.

“We saw Preston and Annabelle at the gala,” Nora Margolis, Preston’s sister-in-law and well-known Cedar Creek photographer, said. “They were getting ice cream with Charlotte and stopped by my studio. I have a large outdoor display each Fourth of July. We spoke briefly and then they were on their way to enjoy the festivities.”

Preston Margolis is a member of the prominent Margolis family of Harrison County, Nevada, and an attorney at the family’s law firm, Margolis Margolis. According to a marriage certificate filed at the Harrison County courthouse, Preston and Annabelle had recently married on May 30. Baby Charlotte is just two months old.

The Harrison County Sheriff’s Department, the Nevada State Police, and members from the FBI missing persons division have provided few details about the investigation. Adding another layer of mystery to the story, theNew York Times has learned that Annabelle Margolis is a person of interest in the hit-and-run death of a local Cedar Creek man earlier in the summer. Annabelle Margolis’s car was found abandoned near the scene of the accident, fueling speculation that the family is on the run to avoid prosecution.

“The hit-and-run accident from earlier in the summer is being treated as a wholly independent investigation, unrelated to the disappearance of the Margolis family,” Sheriff Sandy Stamos said. “That case is still open, and we have not taken any resources away from the investigation as we search for the Margolis family. We are confident that someone in Cedar Creek has information that will lead us to the family. Anyone with knowledge about the whereabouts of Preston, Annabelle, or baby Charlotte Margolis is encouraged to contact the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office.”

This is an ongoing investigation.

Sloan looked up from the computer.

“This can’t be real.”

“I wouldn’t have brought this to you if I wasn’t sure about it.”

They both went silent for a moment.

“Look, Sloan, I’ve discovered some interesting bits of history for my clients, but this whole thing we’ve stumbled over is bigger than me. It’s bigger than the genealogy site I work for. I think . . . I mean, you need to talk with someone about this. I think you need to go to the police.”

“I think I’ll start with my parents.”

Sloan’s research assignment faded into the far recesses of her mind. She was wholly consumed with the mystery of what happened to her birth parents, and how baby Charlotte ended up as Sloan Hastings.