When 15-year-old Cynthia Dawn Constantine clipped a leash onto her dog’s collar and left her family’s Oakdale home on the evening of July 11, 1969, no one imagined it would be the last time she was ever seen.
Within minutes, the dog came home alone.
More than 56 years later, Cynthia’s disappearance remains one of Long Island’s oldest unsolved missing person cases.
Cynthia, who lived with her family on Montauk Highway in Oakdale, left home wearing a white blouse, black Bermuda shorts, orange sneakers and a yellow metal chain with a cross pendant. She also wore eyeglasses.
Earlier that day, she and her older brother had explored the woods near the Oakdale Long Island Rail Road station, where they discovered a muskrat den. Family members believed Cynthia returned that evening hoping to find the animal again.
Three boys later told police they saw Cynthia enter the woods north of the railroad station with her dog.
Just a short time later, the dog returned home by itself, still wearing its collar and dragging the leash behind it.
When Cynthia failed to return, her family searched the area before contacting Suffolk County Police.
The following week, The Suffolk County News carried the front-page headline: “Oakdale Girl Still Missing. No New Leads for Police Dept.” The newspaper reported that detectives had exhausted every lead developed during the first days of the investigation.
Police organized an extensive search involving Third Precinct detectives, volunteers from the West Sayville Fire Department, local Boy Scout troops and members of St. John’s Lutheran Church, where the Constantine family attended services. Search dogs combed the woods, Byron Lake was dragged and, when weather permitted, police also used a helicopter in the search.
Nothing was found.
Investigators located footprints believed to have been made by Cynthia and her dog near the muskrat den. Before they could be photographed or preserved, however, rain washed them away.
Almost immediately, rumors began circulating throughout the community.
One rumor claimed a body had been discovered in a wooded area off Montauk Highway. Suffolk County Police publicly dismissed the report, with one detective telling the newspaper the story was “a lot of baloney.”
Two weeks after Cynthia disappeared, the mystery dominated the front page of The Suffolk County News once again beneath the headline, “Mother’s Hope Is Still Strong.”
Despite the lack of progress, Cynthia’s mother refused to give up hope.
“I just want everyone to know that I still have a strong hope that she is still alive.”
The newspaper reported that detectives were continuing an all-out investigation despite having developed no significant leads since the earliest hours of the case.
Those who knew Cynthia said they could not imagine she had run away.
Friends and family described her as quiet, shy and deeply interested in nature. She had no history of leaving home, left all of her belongings behind and was eagerly awaiting the birth of baby rabbits from one of her pets.
The Rev. Egbert J. Dunker, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, described Cynthia as “shy and reserved,” while her parents pointed to her devotion to her animals as another reason they believed she would never leave voluntarily.
As July drew to a close, the Constantine family announced a reward for information leading to personal contact with their daughter.
The newspaper reported that police were entering the third week of the investigation without a breakthrough, despite one of the largest searches the Oakdale area had seen.
Over the decades, investigators have examined numerous leads and theories.
Around the time Cynthia disappeared, another teenage girl in neighboring Sayville reported that an unidentified man, believed to be between 30 and 40 years old and driving a red car, had asked her to get into his vehicle. While the encounter drew attention because of its timing, investigators have never publicly linked it to Cynthia’s disappearance.
Various people have also been considered possible suspects over the years, but no one has ever been charged, and authorities have never publicly identified a suspect responsible for Cynthia’s disappearance.
Today, Cynthia would be 72 years old.
She is described as a white female with blonde or strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a mole on her throat, a discolored front tooth and had previously fractured her lower right arm.
Anyone with information about Cynthia Dawn Constantine’s disappearance is asked to contact the Suffolk County Police Department at 631-852-6040 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
