Cynthia Ardina Leslie

Cynthia, circa 1974; Age-progression to age 54 (circa 2013)

  • Missing Since 07/31/1974
  • Missing From Mesa, Arizona
  • Classification Non-Family Abduction
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 02/01/1959 (65)
  • Age 15 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'6, 109 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A summer shirt and light blue jeans.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Cynthia has a dark brown mole on the outer side of her right armpit, half an inch in size. Her nickname is Cindy. She wears eyeglasses, but may not have been wearing them at the time she went missing. Her ears are pierced.

Details of Disappearance

Cynthia was last seen walking with her younger sister, Jackie, on July 31, 1974 in their hometown of Mesa, Arizona. The sisters were headed to a friend's home that was located three blocks away from their own residence in the Desert Shores Mobile Home Park. They were last seen walking down Baseline Road near Power Road.

Cynthia and Jackie never returned home and have not been heard from again. They left all of their personal belongings behind inside their residence.

The girls left a note for their mother saying they were going to babysit, but she learned afterwards that they planned to attend a party. Their father asked Cynthia to avoid an unidentified teenage boy, but she may have wanted to meet the individual during the evening.

When authorities questioned the people who attended the party, some said they'd seen the sisters there, and others said they never arrived.

The girls' father died several months after they disappeared. Their family relocated to the trailer park to allow him to be closer to the local hospital, as he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier in 1974.

Cynthia and Jackie's mother said that they were close to their father and never would have left him while he was ill. The girls' mother remarried after their father's death. She moved to Kingman, Arizona in 1999 to be closer to her oldest daughter, who resides in Nevada.

Foul play is suspected in the sisters' cases, but little evidence is available.

Investigating Agency

  • Maricopa County Sheriff's Office 602-256-1087

Updated 5 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated April 21, 2016; details of disappearance updated.