14/09/2026
Kevin Verville Jr. had only been home from the hospital for barely two weeks when a woman calling herself “Sheila” began making her way around the apartment complex where his family lived in Oceanside, California. She claimed to work for an organization that helped young military families, and at first, there was no obvious reason not to believe her.
Kevin had been born on June 14th, 1980, and his father was a young Marine stationed at nearby Camp Pendleton. The family was living at Sterling Homes, an off-base apartment complex where a number of other military families lived as well. And apparently, Sheila had been paying quite a bit of attention to them.
This lady had apparently spent several days visiting apartments in the complex, introducing herself to families and talking about a program called HELP, which she claimed could provide assistance with things like food, diapers and other necessities. Sheila appeared to be pregnant herself, which probably made her story seem that much more believable to the young mothers she approached.
But investigators would later come to believe that Sheila wasn't really there to help anyone. Instead, she may have been searching those apartments for something very specific: a baby who could plausibly pass as her own.
And on July 1st, 1980, 17-day-old Kevin apparently fit what she was looking for. That day, Sheila returned to the Verville apartment and offered to drive Kevin's mother, Angelina, and her newborn son to the HELP office. Angelina agreed, and the three left together in Sheila's car. But rather than taking them to an office, Sheila drove north into a rural part of San Diego County, explaining along the way that they first needed to pick up another woman who was also supposed to receive assistance.
Eventually, Sheila stopped outside a house and asked Angelina if she would go to the door and get the other woman.
Angelina got out of the car, leaving Kevin inside for what she believed would only be a moment. But when she reached the house, she discovered that the people who lived there had no idea what she was talking about. By the time Angelina turned around, Sheila's car was gone. And so was Kevin.
Police now had to figure out who Sheila actually was, and fortunately, Angelina wasn't the only person who had seen her. Other residents at Sterling Homes had encountered the woman during the days she spent around the complex, giving investigators enough information to put together the black-and-white composite sketches that are still associated with Kevin's case today.
Sheila was believed to be in her twenties, with frizzy reddish or blond hair, and witnesses remembered that she appeared to be pregnant. There was also one particularly distinctive detail: a small tattoo in the webbing between the thumb and index finger of her left hand, described as a circle with an X through it.
Despite the descriptions and sketches, investigators were never able to determine who “Sheila” really was, and Kevin was never located.
Over the years, one possibility has continued to hang over his case. If Sheila really had been moving through Sterling Homes looking for an infant who could pass as her own, she may not have intended to harm Kevin at all. She may have taken him home and raised him as her child. If that's what happened, Kevin could have grown up with another name, another birth date and an entirely different story about where he came from. He could be living somewhere today without ever realizing that he was the 17-day-old baby taken from Oceanside in the summer of 1980.
In 2025, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children released a new age-progressed image showing what Kevin might look like as an adult. He would be 46 years old now, and his case remains open.
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