Nicole Bryner

Nicole's photo is shown age-progressed to 26 years. Bryner's mother, Melody Thomas Childs, told authorities that her daughter was abducted from a shopping cart on March 9, 1982. Childs claimed that Bryner was sitting inside the cart at a Giant Eagle supermarket store at 23rd Street and Jane Street on the south side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She stated that when she turned around for a moment, Bryner disappeared. A photograph of Childs is posted below this case summary. Authorities were skeptical of Childs's account from the beginning; no one else remembered seeing Bryner in the grocery store at all that day. Several days after Bryner disappeared, a letter was found in her mother's home which was purportedly from Bryner's abductor. The letter stated "Nikky" was dead and buried. Handwriting analysis determined it was probable that Childs herself had written the letter. An extensive search yielded little evidence at the time and Bryner's case became cold. Timothy Wayne Widman, confessed to Bryner's murder four years later in May 1986. A photograph of Widman is posted below this case summary. He was imprisoned on burglary charges at the time of his claims. He had been Childs's boyfr

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