Monday, June 2, 2008

'We still hope for a miracle'

Ceremony marks child's 1983 disappearance

By Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal

When family and friends marked the fifth anniversary of the 1983 disappearance of 12-
year-old Ann Gotlib, they planted a child-sized blue spruce in front of the school where
her mother worked at the time.

Last evening, on the 25th anniversary of her disappearance, more than 50 family and
friends gathered again to place yellow bows in a tree that now towers as high as the two-
story roof of the Meredith-Dunn School near Taylorsville Road and Hikes Lane.

And they proclaimed their continued commitment to finding out what happened to Ann
while also raising awareness of child exploitation.

"We still hope for a miracle, because nothing short of a miracle can help to solve all this,"
said her mother, Ludmilla Gotlib.

Ann disappeared on June 1, 1983. She was last seen at Bashford Manor Mall on
Bardstown Road, near where she lived on Gerald Court. Her bicycle was found at the
former shopping center, and police have kept the case open since, pursuing numerous
leads but never finding evidence enabling them to conclude if she is alive or dead.

The continued pursuit of the case "helps me to keep hope," said Ann's father, Anatoly
Gotlib. "That's important."

He said both local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have shown him the
huge files they have kept of the investigation. "We all want that to materialize somehow,
not just (as) paper only," he said.

While marking the anniversary is painful, "we live with it every day," Ludmilla Gotlib
said. "June 1 might be a little different, but not very different, because we've got to live
with that pain like one gets used to living with physical pain."

She said some of her fellow religious education teachers at The Temple on Brownsboro
Road were once classmates of Ann. "So I encounter (such reminders) all the time . Her
pictures are all over our house."
The ceremony was organized by the Exploited Children's Help Organization, which
coincidentally was founded 25 years ago to provide education and raise awareness of the
issues of child exploitation, abuse and abductions.

ECHO volunteer Rosie Norris cited news accounts of police solving cases that had gone
cold decades earlier. "How did that happen?" she asked — then answered by saying that
citizens and law-enforcement officials were determined to "keep hope alive."

ECHO Executive D irector Lucy Lee noted that the past 25 years have brought new tools
for finding missing children, such as the Amber Alerts that broadcast bulletins of
abductions and improved technologies that produce images of what a missing child
would look like years later.

Such photos of Ann and other missing children from Kentucky and Indiana covered a
bulletin board at yesterday's ceremony.

Many of those attending knew the Gotlibs — who had immigrated from the Soviet Union
in 1980 — at the time of Ann's disappearance.

"It's something you never forget," said Lynn Tyler, who also lived on Gerald Court at one
time.

Ludmilla Gotlib said her daughter was "a beautiful child as far as appearance , and as far
as her soul and mind."

"She and I really were friends, because we shared our dreams when we came to this
country," she said. "... It was a life full of promise and it was taken away."

Yesterday's commemoration marked "a very sad anniversary, but it's a beautiful
ceremony," she said, adding that she hopes that "within our lifetime, everything will be
solved, and we will know what happened."

Reporter Peter Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4469.

"It was a life full of promise and it was taken away."