Her name was Melissa Diane McGuinn.

In March of 1988, a seven-month-old baby girl… vanished without a trace.

Her name was Melissa Diane McGuinn.

Melissa lived with her parents in Trenton, New Jersey. They shared their home with two roommates… one of them was Wanda Faye Reed, a woman described as mentally disabled, functioning at the level of a child.

On the afternoon of March 6th, 1988, Wanda asked Melissa’s mother if she could take the baby for a walk. Rebecca, Melissa’s mom, agreed.

But just eight minutes later, Wanda returned home. Melissa was gone.

What happened in those eight minutes has haunted investigators for more than three decades.

Wanda gave story after story — each one different. First, she claimed a man jumped out of a car, knocked her down, and snatched the baby. Then she said she had dropped… or even thrown… Melissa into the Delaware River. Later still, she accused a neighbor, claiming she had traded the baby for drugs.

But none of it made sense.

Police searched the river and found nothing.

And Wanda couldn’t have walked that far and back in only eight minutes.

The neighbor was cleared. Melissa’s parents were cleared. And yet — Melissa was still gone.

Some thought jealousy might have played a role. The night before, there had been a party at the house. Guests cooed over baby Melissa… while Wanda’s own infant son was ignored. Wanda had already lost two children to adoption. Did resentment drive her actions?

Two days after the disappearance, Wanda was charged with kidnapping. But in 1989, the charges were dropped when she was found incompetent to stand trial. She was sent to live in a facility, and today, she remains under family care.

Melissa’s parents moved to Arkansas. Her father died in 2008, but her mother and two brothers still hold out hope. In 2011, Rebecca even traveled back to New Jersey and took a polygraph test. She passed. Investigators officially cleared her.

Melissa’s disappearance is now classified as a non-family abduction. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released age-progressed photos showing what she might look like today — a woman in her thirties.

But the truth? It’s still buried in those lost eight minutes.

Thirty-six years have passed, and the question remains:

Was Melissa taken by a stranger?

Or did Wanda know far more than she ever admitted?

What do you think really happened to baby Melissa McGuinn?