This haunting mystery has now spanned 50 years since two teenage girls disappeared in Florida after leaving a small gathering. It was the end of summer in 1974 when Teresa “Terry” Alfonso, 12, and Cindy Gooding, 16, were last seen in Marathon which is in Monroe County located in the central Florida Keys. But where did they go and who were they with? Were they hitchhiking to go to a party or to run away? Or did their path lead them into danger? The timeline in this case is unclear, but the fact remains that Terry and Cindy are missing and their families have not given up on them.
Cynthia “Cindy” Gooding was the youngest of 4 children and the only girl born to Wayne and Doris Gooding, who would later divorce. Cindy’s mother remarried and had 2 more children. She had run away from home before, apparently because of a strict and regimented stepfather. Cindy was 16 years old and had moved from Virginia to Marathon in the Florida Keys to live with her father and older brothers who all worked in the fishing industry and who were often away from home.
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Teresa “Terry” Alfonso looked older than her 12 years according to family and friends. She sometimes used the surname Riggs, the name of the man to whom her mother, Mercedes, was divorcing around that time. Because the marriage was ending, the children were relocated while Mercedes tried to get back on her feet. Terry was sent to live with her biological father in Miami, Florida. But around Labor Day 1974 Terry had returned to Marathon and was staying with her 14-year-old sister, Darlene at an efficiency apartment rented by their mother called the Gerri-Dale.
Darlene believes that she first met Cindy Gooding at Indie’s Inn, a hotel on Duck Key near Marathon where they both worked as maids. Darlene and Cindy also attended school together in Marathon. “I was very young but I had to work, and I worked as a maid during the day. On nights that I didn’t go to night school I worked at the movie theater,” said Darlene. Cindy and Darlene became friends and would occasionally hang out together, and when Terry came to visit, it was apparently that circumstance which introduced Terry and Cindy.
Marathon, Florida in the 1970’s
According to several people we spoke to for the podcast, Marathon, Florida was much different than it is today. In the 1970’s it was largely focused on the fishing industry; tourism did not explode until later years. For teenagers at that time, there was not a lot to do. Teens would often hang out in the parking lot of a local bar or perhaps go to Marathon’s only movie theater.
Photo Courtesy of Monroe County Public Libraries, Florida Keys History Center, Historic Marathon, 1974
One resident who grew up in Marathon in the 1970’s said there was an atmosphere of naivete, especially for the younger crowd. “You just don’t think that there’s anything dangerous down there, but there definitely was,” said Sharon. “We came across people that were just absolutely nuts. We coined the phrase, the Island of Misfit Toys, because, people that didn’t belong anywhere gravitated down there because it was very cheap living.... If you were trying to get lost it was a place to go, because nobody could ever find you down there.”
Terry and Cindy’s Last Known Movements
So, what were the last known movements of the girls before they disappeared? There are different accounts depending on who you talk to, as well as different dates. But we distilled the most discussed theories that are supported to some extent by witnesses:
The Movies?
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) missing person reports for Terry and Cindy say that they were last seen at the Marathon Movie Theater. But, according to one witness we spoke with who was familiar with the girls said she was working at the theater that night and the girls were not there. That witness said that Terry Alfonso had called the theater crying and asked to speak with her sister, Darlene, who was working at the theater. However, Darlene said that she was not working on the night the girls were last seen.
Photo Courtesy of Monroe County Public Libraries, Florida Keys History Center, Historic Marathon, March 22, 1974
But in another report, Terry’s mother Mercedes told police that she dropped off the girls at the Marathon Movie Theater around 7:30 PM, and when she returned at 10:30 PM the girls were not there.[1]
This highlights one of the problems with the timeline in this case – that depending on when some witnesses first learned that the girls were missing, days could have passed and perhaps their memory was of another day or time. We are unsure if the girls ever actually arrived at the movie theater.
Party on Grassy Key?
Cindy Gooding’s brother, Joe, reportedly invited the girls to a party at Grassy Key on the night they were last seen. The location was described as the Hatton home which appears to have been on Morton Street in Marathon. Cindy’s brother Joe, now deceased, said that the girls never came to that party, while a third-party witness told Terry Alfonso’s family that the girls were at that party.
Hitchhiking, Getting in a Van?
Terry Pease Cameron, who was a friend of Terry Alfonso, said that she saw Terry and Cindy getting into a van on the main highway near the dry cleaners. Cameron said the van was presumably occupied by two people as she witnessed a passenger open side doors for the girls to enter the dark colored vehicle with blacked-out windows. She last saw the van heading north, and that would be the last time Cameron ever saw the girls, but she remembers the last words she said to the, “Y’all have a good time. Tell me about it tomorrow.”
The theory about the girls getting into a van was present throughout a number of the interviews we conducted for the podcast, and from the research about the case. Altogether there were 14 references to vans of varying colors mentioned to APB Cold Case throughout production.
Bar Parking Lot?
There was also a reported sighting of the girls in the parking lot of the Idle Hour bar, a place where underage teens who could not get into the bar would commonly hang out. Local resident Sharon told APB Cold Case that the parking lot was the ‘place to be’. “The Idle Hour is where we lived on the weekends. For young kids, it was a blast. People that would hang out there knew they would run into somebody they knew from school.” Did Terry and Cindy go to Idle Hour instead of the movie theater, or on their way to or from the theater? One witness reportedly told Terry’s mother that the girls were going to meet Cindy’s boyfriend at the Idle Hour parking lot. Merecedes Cruz (Terry’s mother) told police that when she went to the Idle Hour several kids told her that they had seen them there earlier.[2]
Walking Away From a Gathering at a Trailer?
The most credible witness is Terry’s older sister Darlene as she was with both Cindy and Terry at a mobile home trailer on 74th Street which was rented by Greg Koltunak and his roommate. Upon release of the Part #1 episode of APB Cold Case Missing in the Keys, Greg contacted producers to say that the trailer was his. Darlene recalled that Terry and Cindy left the trailer at one point, and after they left an unknown male asked if they might need a ride. The man left in a white panel type van and returned sometime later. Greg Koltunak also said that he remembered Terry and Cindy being at his trailer, though he did not recall Darlene being there. Koltunak said there had been discussion about going to the movies, but that Terry and Cindy left on foot, walking in a direction away from the theater.
Darlene told APB Cold Case that she and the girls were going to meet up later that night, but she didn’t see them again. She was not initially concerned, believing they were off somewhere enjoying themselves. But the next morning, Darlene found that Terry’s purse and other belongings were still at her efficiency apartment at the Gerri-Dale. Now she knew that something was wrong. Darlene said she remembered the van at the trailer where the gathering was on 74th Street the night before, and she had an uneasy feeling about it. “And I didn’t look in the van. I don’t know why I got that feeling, but that’s always haunted me from that day. I should have looked in that van.”
Missing Persons Report to Police
But as the hours tick by on Tuesday, September 3, 1974, Darlene becomes more nervous. At 9:30 PM she and a friend go to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department and file a missing person report. Then, she called her mother from a phone booth to tell her what happened.
The missing person report described Cindy Gooding as 5’ 8”, 87 pounds, with shoulder length brown hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a light blue shirt with white and yellow flowers; Terry Alfonso was described as 5’ 5”, 138 pounds, with dark brown hair and brown eyes, wearing high heeled shoes.[3] The color of her shirt varied in reports – one saying blue, and another white. Terry’s mother told police that she has a gap between her front teeth, pierced ears, and wears a necklace with a cross and a St. Theresa medallion.[4]
But according to Darlene, the police did not investigate their disappearance right away, believing they were runaways.
Breakup with Boyfriend
Darlene said that Cindy had just broken up with her boyfriend David, known in Marathon as Little Dave. (We are not identifying him by last name here as we were unable to interview him for this story; it appears that he has since died). In the several interviews conducted for this story, everyone who knew about Little Dave and Cindy Gooding referred to them as boyfriend-girlfriend despite the age difference at the time – Cindy was 16, and Little Dave 26. In an interview with police years later in 2011, Little Dave acknowledged knowing Cindy for about 8 weeks and seeing her daily during that time, saying that she had a crush on him. But he denied having a relationship with her, though police expressed skepticism about his denial.[5]
Little Dave told police that the last time he saw Cindy was at a hotel in Marathon Shores. He explained that he went to the bar because Cindy was asleep, and that 45 minutes later his two friends came into the bar and said that Cindy was still sleeping. According to reports about Little Dave’s statements, he said when he went back to the room Cindy was gone, and he claimed to be unaware of anything being wrong until 2 weeks later when Cindy’s brother asked if he had seen Cindy.[6] When asked about 12-year-old Terry Alfonso, Little Dave said he did not know her and was unaware that she, too, was missing.[7]
Detectives inquired of Little Dave if he had any idea who might have taken the girls. He suggested it could have been un unnamed man he used to work with at a resort in Marathon – a man who drove a delivery van. Little Dave said that the man may have been arrested for killing a woman on Grassy Key.[8]
Skeletal Remains on Grassy Key
We were unable to find any record of a murder on Grassy Key, but there was a record of skeletal remains being found on Grassy Key in 1976. Those remains were reportedly discovered by a friend of Little Dave’s named Terry Fryfogle who would have been about 18 years old at the time.[9] When APB Cold Case contacted Fryfogle, he denied finding any remains and said that any such report was disinformation.
Cindy Intoxicated at Indie’s Inn and Gerri-Dale; Where was Terry?
Police noted that in 1997 they interviewed Terry Fryfogle about the last time he saw Cindy Gooding. Reports says that he told police he was with his father, Robert Fryfogle, Sr., Little Dave, and Cindy at Indie’s Inn on Duck Key. He explained they had been partying and were all intoxicated from drinking and drugs. At one point, he said that they Cindy was “so out of it, that in order to dance with her, he had to hold her up.”[10] He also said that they returned to the Gerri-Dale at some point, although the chronology of what activities happened at which locations is not clear from the reports we reviewed. According to one report, Little Dave had sex with Cindy, and Terry Fryfogle said his own father also had sex with a sleeping Cindy who woke up and began to “complain about what happened”.[11] Terry Fryfogle said that the next morning Cindy was asleep in bed when the three men left to go to Miami.
When we asked about the details from the report of one of the last times that Cindy was seen, Terry Fryfogle, told producers that he might have been at Indie’s Inn with his father and Little Dave, saying, “we might have been dancing over there or something.” But when asked about Terry Alfonso, he said he did not remember the name of the other missing girl. When asked what condition Cindy was in that night, Terry Fryfogle said that she was probably in the same condition as everyone else, “trashed.” He explained that “back in those days, it was a perpetual party.” When asked about his father’s background, particularly, a federal investigation, Terry Fryfogle declined comment.
Robert Fryfogle, Sr.
Robert Fryfogle, Sr. would have been about 41 years old in 1974, and the account of him having sex with a “sleeping” 16-year-old is particularly disturbing. In 1997, the elder Fryfogle was the subject of an investigation into the production and distribution of pornography using minors during the period of 1994-1996.[12] Reports say he pled guilty to the main count, using persons under 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing videotapes and photographs which were distributed through the mail. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.[13] So, that certainly raises a concern when we go back to Robert Fryfogle, Sr. being seen in the company of Cindy both at Indie’s Inn and at the Gerri-Dale.
Greg Koltunak grew up in Marathon and was a teenager in the 1970’s. He knew the Fryfogle family and recalled an incident when he went to their trailer one day. After knocking at the door, Koltunak said that Robert, Sr. answered the door. “…And there’s this girl, and she had her top off… and he’s grabbing her, and he’s got his hands all over her…” Koltunak said that he was at first reluctant, but Robert, Sr. encouraged him to come in and have sex with the girl. “We go in the back room, and I’m taking my clothes off, and all of a sudden, I hear the door. He’s opening, he’s peeking in the door... He wanted to watch.”
Koltunak said that Robert Fryfogle eventually moved away from Marathon but then returned after having received a settlement for a worksite injury. Koltunak described how Fryfogle had a box of videotapes and offered to show him one which depicted “kids going at it,” said Koltunak, inferring that it was Fryfogle who recorded the images.
Robert Fryfogle reportedly died in federal prison. Little Dave since died in Oregon.
Exploring Other Possibilities
In the multi-episode podcast we examine a number of persons with either violent histories, admissions to murders, or who were suspected in assaults, kidnappings and homicides. One potential lead that police explored extensively was Oliver and Paul Cron, the father-son duo who were known to live in Florida. Paul Cron alleged that he witnessed his father kill 2 girls in the Keys in the 1970’s. He also made some other shocking admissions, but his narrative changed, apparently adapting his original story to facts matching the description of Terry and Cindy that he learned from Internet searches. Cron also claimed that he played board games with Ted Bundy in prison.
Speaking of Ted Bundy, his crimes spanned the time period of Terry and Cindy’s disappearance, but he was known to be living in the Washington State and Utah areas at the time. We also look at a notorious Outlaw Motorcycle Gang member and one of his associates who each separately escaped from custody in the Keys in 1974. One of them escaped at the same time of our girl’s disappearance. But police found no direct linkage to Terry and Cindy.
There is also the “killer cop”, Gerard Schaefer, who was brought to our attention by the family of Terry Alfonso. Schaefer abducted and killed teen girls in Martin and Broward counties in Florida in 1972 and 1974.[14] But he was eliminated as a suspect in this case as he was incarcerated at the time.
We also take a look at serial killer Anthony Joe Larette, accused of killing Jeanette Wade, age 25, in her home in Marathon in 1976. According to published reports, Larette was apprehended in 1980. He confessed to 30 murders, rapes and assaults in 11 states, including the murder of Jeanette Wade.[15][16] Larette was initially charged for Wade’s murder, but was never extradited, any prosecution becoming fruitless considering that he was facing the death penalty in Missouri for other crimes. He was executed in 1995 for the 1978 murder of a 19-year-old girl in St. Charles, Missouri.[17][18] Even though he reportedly claimed knowledge of 30 murders and rapes, and considering that one of his alleged victims was killed in Marathon, detectives in Florida did not find any connection between Larette and the disappearance of Terry and Cindy but they have not eliminated as a suspect.[19]
The podcast also reviews the known crimes and patterns of Joseph “Crazy Joe” Spaziano, Bobby Jack Fowler, Gerald Stano, Carl Eric “Charlie” Brandt, Robert Clark Keebler, Rodney Alcala, and Christopher Wilder, some of whom were known violent offenders in or around the Florida Keys in the 1970’s. We also examine the theories behind Terry and Cindy’s last movements and where they went, or may have gone. It is clear that they were at a gathering at the rented trailer on 74th Street at one point, but where did they go next? – and on what day were those observations? Did they actually go to Grassy Key? And who picked them up in that van? Some answers remain elusive.
For the families of the missing girls, their search has now spanned more than a half century. But they still want answers. The next generation is keeping the investigation alive on the family side. Kevin is Terry Alfonso’s nephew by marriage. He said, “I know there’s a lot of pain, and since I’ve been in this family, I’ve seen the pain firsthand, and it’s real. It’s in their eyes. You can’t hide it.” He added, “There’s somebody still alive today that knows something, and they’re not divulging it. And they’re not divulging it because they’re scared.”
Terry’s sister Bonnie Padron has long feared that her sister is not alive. “I know my sister and I know we were all close. And, I feel that if she was alive she would have gotten in contact with us. It’s been such a long journey,” Bonnie added, saying that they will not give up on their sister.
Cindy’s younger sister Diane urges anyone who had even the smallest bit of information to share it. “Give it up – talk about it, even if you think it’s unimportant. Because what you think is unimportant may be very important for someone to find an answer and have a way to close the door.”
Conclusion
For all of the theories we explored in this podcast, we are drawn back to the description of events that occurred at Indie’s Inn and the Gerri-Dale during one of the last known times the girls were seen before they disappeared. The reported circumstances of Cindy’s purported boyfriend having sex with her while she was possibly under the influence of drugs and alcohol and then a 41-year-old man having sex with her while she was “sleeping” at an unknown apartment at the Gerri-Dale, is shocking and disturbing. Perhaps there is still an opportunity for answers to so many lingering questions.
Cindy Gooding and Terry Alfonso have been missing for more than 50 years. And while the record is not clear about the exact date they disappeared, that is not as important as the fact that they were never heard from again. Two young girls were seen walking away from that trailer on 74th Street – what happened next? Did they hitchhike and get into a van? Did they go to Grassy Key? Their purses were left behind at Darlene’s apartment. Why?
Cindy Robin Song
Cindy’s brother Joe Gooding passed away several years ago. But in 1986 he wrote and performed a special tribute to Cindy and Terry (the song can be heard in Part #5).
Cindy Robin - Written by Joseph A. Gooding – 1986
There’s a time in my life
When I had to realize
All the things that could be
Could be changed in just one night
Cindy Robin disappeared long ago
Never to be seen again
Cindy Robin had no reason to go
Is this how it should end?
In 1974 two young girls decided to
Hitchhike to a party somewhere in Marathon,
The Florida Keys. My sister, Cindy Robin and her friend Terry Riggs never arrived.
And now, no one I know has spoken to them since.
Cindy was 16 and Terry 12, and if they are alive, I pray they’ll call home.
You know, I’ve seen a lot of pain,
And I’ve done my share of misery,
But the hardest pain of all,
Is this little girl named Cindy!
Cindy Robin where are you today?
Are you able to be heard?
Cindy Robin would you come home today?
Everybody misses you – everybody misses you.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Terry Alfonso or Cindy Gooding from Marathon, Florida in 1974, call Crimestoppers at 866-471-TIPS or go to Crimestoppers305.com or call 1-800-THE-LOST.
If you or anyone you know is being abused or exploited call your local police or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST. We also have other contacts for victims on our Resources page.
Show Notes for these episodes include age-progressed images of Cindy and Terry, a Who’s Who of the people mentioned, a timeline, maps and more – go to www.apbcoldcase.com
Listen to the audio podcast series Missing in the Keys in your favorite podcast platform, on our YouTube Channel, or on our website.
This story came to us through a friend and law enforcement colleague in New York State who met a woman who is a namesake of Cindy Gooding. Thank you Asst. Chief/Retired Nick Macherone.
