Retha Lee Hiers

• Missing Since 12/29/1982
• Missing From Largo, Florida
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race Black
• Date of Birth 08/12/1939 (83)
• Age 43 years old
• Height and Weight 5'1, 130 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A red shirt and blue jeans.
• Medical Conditions Hiers has an unspecified medical condition.
• Associated Vehicle(s) White two-door 1976 Ford Elite (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes. Hiers wears eyeglasses. Her nickname is Lil Baby and her maiden name is Ingram. Hiers walks with a limp. She has surgical scars on both knees, and her ears are pierced. Some agencies give her name as Retha Ingram-Hiers.

Details of Disappearance

Hiers was last seen in the morning hours of December 19, 1982, driving away from her residence at the Breakers Apartments in the vicinity of the 12900 block of Campbell Lane in Largo, Florida. She was on her way to buy laundry detergent at the time. She left home without taking any clothing and personal belongings.

A few days after her disappearance, her husband got a letter from Hiers saying she had left him to be with Cleveland Hill Jr. and she wanted her children to stay with their father. She has never been heard from again. Her white two-door 1976 Ford Elite was found in March 1983, four months after her disappearance, in the vicinity of the 2900 block of Gulf To Bay Boulevard in Clearwater, Florida.

Hiers had lived with her husband for 25 years prior to her disappearance and they had six children, but they didn't marry until shortly before her disappearance. Months before she vanished, her then-boyfriend found out about her affair with Hill, a married asphalt contractor and a friend of the family.

Hiers attempted suicide after her boyfriend found out about the relationship. She survived and her boyfriend agreed to marry her, and she claimed she had ended her relationship with Hill.

Her husband approached Hill after his wife disappeared and asked where Hiers was, and Hill said she had left with a Caucasian man and he had no idea where she was. Her husband sought, and was granted, a divorce on the grounds of adultery.

A photo of Hill is posted with this case summary. Donyelle Johnson and Margaret Dash also disappeared while dating him and have never been found.

Hill served a prison sentence for two accounts of assault after he shot his wife and mother-in-law in 1968, and in 1992 he was convicted of drug trafficking. He was released from prison in 2008 and now lives in Virginia. He has never been charged in connection with any of the missing women's cases and he maintains his innocence.

The missing women did not know each other and authorities have found no connection between them other than their association with Hill. Foul play is suspected in all three cases, which remain unsolved.