Kimberly Arrington, 16: Vanishes In 1998 After Visiting CVS Pharmacy
As a kid, I spent summers visiting my grandparents in the Midwest. I returned to the home my mother was raised in for family time as my relatives, dozens of them, would stop by almost every day to eat, lounge, and spend time with one another. My cousins and I played in the streets with the neighborhood kids, and often, we would ask permission to walk to the market around the corner to get candy, snacks, or my favorite, Faygo pop.
The latter is common for children all around the country. They leave their home only to take a short walk to visit friends or take a quick trip to the store. It’s expected that kids won’t take long when they’re away, and they’ll return safe and sound.
That wasn’t the case for 16-year-old Kimberly Nicole Arrington.
The day before Halloween in 1998 in Montgomery, Alabama, Kimberly left her home to go to her neighborhood CVS Pharmacy to buy candy and a soda around 4:00 p.m. When she didn’t return within the hour, her parents were unnerved. They went to the store to look for her themselves and were told that, yes, Kimberly Arrington did make it to the CVS, but no one saw her after that. They contacted the police after they personally searched for her for hours with no leads as to her whereabouts.
Although there was no evidence that Kimberly was a runaway, police treated her as such because of her age. The Jefferson Davis High School tenth-grader was described as being a happy teen who didn’t have a rebellious streak. She liked music and dancing as well as computers. Kimberly was getting her Christmas shopping plans together with her family and was scheduling a time with her father to buy items for her loved ones. Nothing indicated that Kimberly left her home distraught.
Detectives may have initially believed that Kimberly ran away from home, but now they suspect that she, at some point during her visit to the CVS store, was abducted. She was last seen at CVS; however, there are no witnesses who saw her in distress, and there isn’t any evidence to show that she was involved in a situation that endangered her life.
At the time of her disappearance, Kimberly was described as being 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 4 inches tall and 110 pounds. She had black/dark brown hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing a gray Bugle Boy shirt with a collar, light blue jeans (Levi), white Reebok sneakers with gray trim, an emerald ring with two diamonds on each side, and a double heart ring set with a diamond. Kimberly reportedly also had a small surgical scar on the left side of her abdomen, and both of her ears were pierced. It should also be noted that Kimberly suffers from allergies that are said to be severe. At the time of her disappearance, she was spending the majority of her time inside to avoid flare-ups and irritations.
The lead photo at the top of this page: (left) what Kimberly looked like when she was last seen, (right) computerized age progression of what she may look like as an adult.
In 2005, Kimberly’s mother passed away without knowing what happened to her daughter. The missing teen’s father, however, is still living, and he continues to search for his child.
Anyone with information regarding the missing person case involving Kimberly Arrington is urged to contact the Montgomery Police Department at 334-241-2790.
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