Halfway2sane

louis mackerley was born on february 15th, 1977 near stanhope, new jersey. his family moved to allentown, pennsylvania in june of 1983. louis was a happy, energenic and unhibited seven year old boy, who loved to be outside. at the same time he was described as a loner and a timid child. he did not like to sleep alone and he had a short attention span. he had trouble writing and paying attention. in the fall of 1984, he was supposed to be entering into a learning disabled class. he had currently been a first grader at Central Elememtary School.

On June 7th, 1984, louis came home from school that day at 2:15pm. his aunt was at his home to babysit since his mother was in the hospital recovering from surgery and his father was at work. louis told his aunt that he was going to walk to a friends house to play, which was in the 300 block of chew street. his parents later believed he was going to 391 chew street to an elderly neighbor he liked to visit with. several witnesses confirmed seeing louis walking between 4th and gordon streets, just a block from his home in the 360 block of chew street.

when louis left the house he was wearing a short sleeve green-striped shirt, long blue pants with a red tag on the rear pocket that read “doggie” and an elastic belt and a buckle shaped like a train, pink socks and brown shoes.

his missing poster describes him as a white male, with blonde/brown hair and blue eyes. at the time of his disappearance he was missing his four front teeth. he has two odd shaped circular burn scrs on the right side of his chest. he walks slowwly and often leans forward as he does. when he speaks he puts his hands on his hips. he was 4′ tall and weighed 44 pounds. he has learning and emotional disabilities. he was diagnosed with hyperactivity and must take medicine two times a day of ritalin to control his condition. if he does not take the medicine he may suffer from lapses of memory.

louis was one of the first missing kids to be put on milk cartons, match books, grocery bags and bill boards.

louis reportedly went to a local hot dog stand about 4:00pm. the owner of marco’s doggie shop located at 429 gordon street, stated that louis had spent about 45 minutes looking around the store and told the owner that he was in the store because two teenage boys were chasing him. he said louis left the got dog stand about 4:45pm walking east.

authorities later located the teenage boys and interviewed them and they were not considered suspects in his disappearance.

another witness later came forward and claimed they had seen louis talking to an unknown man and woman in a park near jordan creek, one block from his home at about 4:30pm. this story wasn’t confirmed but it has not been ruled out by law enforcement. this timeline is slightly off if louis was actually at marco’s hot dog stand until 4:45pm. there was also reports of someone seeing louis getting into a blue statonwagon with a couple. louis did love playing near water, especially at jordan creek and lehigh river. he had also said how he wanted to visit dorney park. all these places were checked and there was no sign of him anywhere.

louis was not reported missing until 11:10pm. his parents said he liked to stay outside late and usually returned home about 9:30pm. once, he reportedly locked himself out of the house so his parents installed a lock on the door to prevent this situation from happening again.

several rumors were going around during this time that his parents were abusing and neglecting him. social services investigated the allegations and found no truth to them. louis’s parents were ruled out as suspects after each taking lie detector tests.

back in january 1984, louis reportedly told his parents, a school nurse and a psychologist that he had been molested by a couple, a man named frank and a woman named elizabeth. he allegedly said he was molested on the railroad tracks near jordan street and the lehigh river. he also said that another incident happened where frank and elizabeth allegedly drove him to an apartment somewhere in allentown and molested him there before taking him back to his neighborhood. he said frank and elizabeth told him that if he ever told anybody about the molestation that they would hurt him. the allentown police were notified of the incidents but they didn’t have enough evidence for an investigation because louis could not provide police with the couples last names or the address where this took place. it was never confirmed if the alleged abuse had anything to do with louis’s disappearance or not. but, louis did disappear six months after the allegations.

louis’s family moved just eleven months after his disappearance. they moved to another house on chew st that he once enjoyed visity. the older worman that used to live there was transferred to a retirement home. his family wanted to move to a place he knew in case he returned. but despite his paent’s receiving contributions from the community, they could not continue to pay the mortgage payments on the house. they filed for bankruptcy and moved to effort, pennsylvania in 1989.

there was a man named david riggs, who had claimed that he was a private investigator from new york and he stated that he started an organization called “search 7” in order to find louis and other missing children, stating that louis was going to be his first case. rigg’s claimed expertise in child abduction cases based on his graduate degree in sociology and his work with runaway children in new york city. he theorized louis was abducted for financial reasons. it was found out that riggs had approached five young boys and he offered to pay them to pose while wearing bikini underwear. thankfully, none of these boys accepted the offer. and he was later arrested in west virginia in 1988. he pleaded guilty and was convicted on two counts of attempted child abduction and one count of sexual abuse related to the incidents. he was sentenced to one year in prison. the investigators thought riggs was involved in louis’s abduction, but they didn’t have any evidence and he was later ruled out as a suspect. original tips pointed to a cult in ohio, where nothing was found. investigators discovered that riggs organization had never been registered as a non-profit and he did not have a private investigators license.

there was an article origaninally printed in the morning call newspaper on july 24th, 1988 that read: on a cold night about a week after new years eve 1985, an old dodge monaco with the back window knocked out rumbled down the driveway of the secluded mackall estate in saucon valley. the three men in the car were looking for louis mackerley, a seven year old allentown boy who had mysteriously disappeared from a neighborhood near sacred heart hospital on june 7th, 1984. accorrding to a tip from an unidentified woman, the mackerley boy was taken to the abandoned, crubling estate, once the home of a prominent bethlehem steel executive. there, he was beaten and killed when his head struck a fireplace. the boy was tossed into a well on the property, the tipster claimed. david riggs, the new york city hunter of missing children who got the tip, was convinced that he would find the missing child at the bottom of a well on the property, according to the men who were with him. harold mackerley, the missing boys father and clyde barrow, a family friend, said the trio went to the estate in riggs car and checked out the grounds, several outbuildings and the old mackall mansion for signs that the boy had been there. there were none. they found a well but clyde barrow said it was unlikely that the boy was in it, because its heavy concrete cover couldnt possibly have been removed without heavy equipment. although the midnight foray, one of several riggs would lead into the eerie confines of the old estate, proved fruitless, david riggs aggressive investigative style shocked harold mackerley. when riggs couldn’t find a way into a farmhouse on the property, harold recalled, he kicked in a window the way the cops on tv break down a locked door. whatever he made his mind up to do, he was going to do. there was no stopping him. dennis lisi of whitehall, a friend of the mackerley’s who was with riggs, said police told them to leave the estate. they left, but rigg’s insisted on going back to check out what he thought were bloodstains on the mansion’s floor. they were picked up when the upper saucon police returned and found them on the property a second time but now charges were filed. a ragged, unkept person who some say lived in his car, riggs had never been popular with allentown police and fbi investigators handling the mackerley case. while there was some concern about his backround, law enforcement authorities saw him as a pushy, off-beat amateur who tended toward bizarre theories like the one involving the mackall estate.

sheila mackerley was first contacted by david riggs in november 1984 when he telephoned her from new york saying he specialized in finding missing children and he would like to help find her son louis. the mackerley’s agreed to see riggs, who purported to represent search 7, which he said was a new york based organization that searched for missing kids. the mackerley’s say riggs told them he had reason to believe their son was kidnapped and sold to a ring of child pornagraphers. he said he would use guerilla tactics to find the boy and indicated he could devote his full attention to the case, unlike police who had other cases to work on. the couple had misgivings about his ragged appearance, which made him look like anything but a private detective specializing in finding missing kids. but after several agonizing months of waiting, hoping and prying for the return of their missing son, the allentown couple were desperate enough to try just about anything. he acted like a man who knew the streets, recalled mrs. mackerley. she said, “we thought maybe he could do more than the police.” although they did not pay him any money, the mackerley’s signed a contract with rigg’s. he agreed to work without a fee, but said he would claim the $10,000 reward that had been put up by a family friend. it was $5,000 for the boy’s return and $5,000 upon conviction of the abductor.

for the mackerley’s, their association with riggs turned out to be one of the most painful chapters in the saga that followed the disappearance of their youngest son. mrs. mackerley said, “he took us on a roller-coaster ride. he’d get out hopes up, then dash them down.” the mackerley’s said riggs would call them and say, “i know where louis is. i’ll have him back home tomorrow.” then they wouldn’t hear from him for weeks. a former allentown police detective who handled the case for years, said riggs was picked up by allentown police for following a young woman he suspected of abducting the boy. the worman did not file charges when the detective explained who riggs was. in another instance, riggs insisted a whitehall woman was the mysterious elizbeth who had allegedly molested the boy prior to his disappearance. no one is quite sure how riggs came to suspect a whitehall woman of being elizabeth, but he convinced allentown police to search the woman’s house. she was then taken to township police headquarters, where police videotaped her questioning. he swore up and down that she was involved, but it turned out to be totally off the wall. there were kids in her house but they were there because she was babysitting them. they were not abducted.

an investigation by the national center for missing and explouted children, the nations clearinghouse for information on missing children, turned up information that riggs was not registered as a private investigator. riggs became indignant when the center turned down his request for the names and addresses of the parents of 94 stranger abducted children it its files in may 1987. although the childrens names and the date they were abducted are public information, parental information is confidential. somehow, riggs apparently got the parents names and sent out letters on search 7 stationary. the letters, which asked for information asked for information about the missing children, led parents to believe riggs was connected with the national center and was working on a research project for columbia university. the center received complaints from dozens of parents across the country. subsequently, a bulletin was sent to parents and police departments around the country indicating riggs was not associated with the center and had gotten no information from its files. a resume riggs gave to the moring call in november 1984, portrayed him as an academic who had an in depth knowledge of social problems, particularly those of delinquent youth. it indicated he had a master’s degree in sociology from columbia in 1982. that was confirmed to be true. a renowned sociologist from columbia recalled that riggs had been a doctoral candidate in socioloty but has not completed the course work. a spokesman for the ohio state prison at lebanon said riggs spent three years and three months in ohio prisons on larceny charges. prison records show riggs was admitted to the ohio state reformatory in mansfield on december 4th, 1971 and transferred to lebanon on september 1st, 1972. he was paroled from lebanon on march 12, 1975. riggs resume indicated involvement in several programs with homeless youth in manhattan. one program, which explored the relationship between delinquency and creativity through music, was listed as being supported by remington products inc. and several other major corporations. remington’s chief executive office and president, recalled receiving a letter from riggs soliciting funds. he said he contributed $300 but didn’t recall giving riggs permission to use his name on a resume. barry berger, whom riggs listed on his resume, said riggs helped his son and several other troubled youngsters straighten out their lives. with riggs help, the boys formed a rock band and attempted to make recordings back in 1983. all of the boys have since straightened out their lives and all but one was in college. he said, “my son had a drug problem and dave helped him out of it.” after four years of dead end leads, sheila mackerley has learned not to get her hopes up. while the fbi thinks its worth talking to riggs, she is not counting on learning anything at this point. mrs. mackerley knows how complex david riggs is. she has thought a lot about riggs, trying to make some sense out of his complex character. she has tried to understand how he could look like a street person and be working on a doctorate at columbia, how he could be so well spoken and articulate and yet so misleading, how he could be a convicted criminal and yet have such empathy for the homeless kids who inhabit manhattan’s alleys. and she has tried to understand how the man who promised to bring her son back to her could now be accused of attempting to abduct other children like him. she said, “i don’t know which way to go on this one. my feelings are up and soen. in a lot of ways, right now, i hope it’s him. that he might tell us something that would help us find my son and bring him back. on the other hand, i hope to god it’s not him, that we didn’t hire my son’s kidnapper. if that’s the case, we’ll never get him back.”

on october 11th, 2025 the morning call newspaper did an article on louis. and lehigh county sheriff joe hanna states he keeps a picture of seven year old louis mackerley. he said the case for him is unfinished business and that there is no investigator worth their salt that doesn’t have an unsolved case that bothers them that they carry on their shoulders and this is one for him.

over the years a number of detectives have worked this case. the newest detective who got the case said, even with the passage of time, he holds hope that new leads and fresh information will come in and the case will be solved. he said he plans to go back through records meticulously and he hopes to reignite interest in the case, perhaps prompting new witnesses to step forward and that technology advances over the last forty years could play a significant role in solving the mystery.

joe hanna said after all these years he still often thinks of louis mackerely. he has so many things he would like to say to him if he’s still alive, starting with, “welcome home louis.” he said this case is near and dear to my heart. the important thing is even after forty one years, this case and thoughts of louis stay revived even as time goes by. i’m always hopeful and that may not be a pramagtic statement. i’m always hopeful that someday, somewhere, and perhaps under a different name a forty eight year old man will step in and say, “i was abducted by and raised by these strangers, but i’m really louis mackerley who was picked up in allentown back on june 7th, 1984.”

in the 1980’s wfmz rob vaughn spoke to sheila mackerley, louis’s mother, who said, “we’ll make it. how? i dont know.”

there was one article where there was one boy picked up four separate times by police, but was determined not to be louis when the boys father showed police a birth certificate. in another instance police brought sheila to obsrve a pottsville boy at his school but she determined it was not louis.

hanniversaries are never easy for harold mackerley, louis’s brother, especially the day his little brother vanished right off the street. he’s quoted as saying, “everyday, everyday, not a day that goes by that i don’t think about him.” he said after louis first disappeared the police would get called that louis was in allentown somewhere playing and it would turn out to be harold because they looked so much alike. harold stated he is very bitter about the way police treated his parents. he said the cops literally, for like the first three years were useless before they finally said, maybe somebody outside the family actually did do something. he said the kidnapping changed his family forever. family vacations stopped, they no longer went anywhere or did anything, because back then there were no cell phones, so they always had to be near a phone. the apartment building they lived in had big rounded windoes. his mom would watch him actually go into another person’s house and would still make him call her to let them know he was inside the house safe and sound.

louis’s parents have since died not ever getting answeres..