Real Name: Donna Rae Kempton
Case: Lost Daughter
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Date: September 1953
David Kempton
Case[]
Details: Donna Kempton is the daughter of David and Barbara Kempton. In 1953, they divorced, and a few months later, Barbara abducted four-year-old Donna. David, now seventy-three, has been searching for her ever since. He said the last time he saw her was just a few weeks after her fourth birthday. He said it has been a very long time.
David was originally from Cleveland, Ohio. In 1946, he was stationed in Calcutta, India, in the U.S. Army Air Force, when he met Barbara at a dance. She was a Eurasian woman from Burma. They were married on Valentine's Day, 1946. That spring, they moved to Cleveland. They then had two children named Steven and Donna. Their troubles began in July 1951, when David brought a coworker named Charles Semmler home for dinner.
Charles was an engaging storyteller who entertained everyone with delightful tales of his adventures around the country. David said that Charles was a person who lived an unusual kind of life. He said that almost anything or any place you wanted to talk about, Charles had some stories related to it.
Charles never stopped talking about California, the "promised land". Eventually, David and Barbara decided that was the place to be. Later that year, they moved to Glendale. All went well until Charles joined them there.
On New 'Eve, 1952, David's world came apart. Barbara admitted to him that she was in love with Charles. She asked him for a divorce. He says he was "totally unhorsed". He never considered the possibility that she would be in love with Charles. He did not think there was anything wrong with their marriage.
Eventually, David and Barbara decided that he would "step out of the picture", Charles would "step into [David's] shoes", and there would be as little disruption as possible with Steven and Donna. David moved back to Cleveland. But just a month later, Barbara called him "out of the blue" from Arizona. She said that Charles had left, she had Steven and Donna, and wanted to come home. David immediately sent her bus tickets so that they could return to Cleveland. He then got a house for them to live in, hoping that they could become a family again.
David's joy was short-lived. Within weeks, Charles was back in the picture. Barbara moved out again. She moved back in. Then she dropped another bombshell. She told David that she would live with him and take care of Steven and Donna, "but don't ask me for anything more". This time, he left, and took Steven and Donna with him. A judge soon granted him temporary custody of them. Barbara received weekend visitation rights.
Shortly before the first weekend visitation in September 1953, Barbara called David ahead of time. She told him that she was in a rooming house and could not accommodate both Steven and Donna. She asked if she could just take Donna for the weekend. On that Friday afternoon, he dropped Donna off with Barbara. On Sunday evening, he went back to pick her up. The house owner told him that Barbara and Donna had packed up and left the day before because of "family business".
Barbara and Donna never came back. David was devastated. He said he had no way of knowing where they might have gone. He tried to get help from a private detective, who "all but laughed" at him. He tried to search for them himself, but he had almost nothing to go on since Barbara had no relatives in the United States, and he knew little about Charles' background.
David later remarried and tried to raise Steven and his three new children as best as possible. In 1970, they moved to Hawaii. Steven now works as a restaurant manager in Midland, Texas. David is a machinist at the University of Hawaii. But he has never forgotten about Donna. In 1991, he started searching for her again. He hired a California firm that specializes in finding people. However, they had no luck.
In April 1995, David contacted the "Hawaii State Clearinghouse on Missing Children". Although this case was older than any other one they had worked on, they agreed to help. In August, they asked the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (or NCMEC) to create an age-progressed composite to show how Donna might look today.
More than forty years have passed since David last saw Donna – forty years of birthdays, dances, graduations, perhaps a wedding, and even grandchildren. He wants her to know that she has always been a part of him and his "feeling". Whenever anyone asks him about his children, he will usually mention her. He wants to say "Hello" and "I love you" in whatever way possible. He wants her to know that he has love for her.
Extra Notes:
- This case first aired on the January 12, 1996 episode.
- It was submitted to the show by Anne Clarkin, coordinator for the "Hawaii State Clearinghouse on Missing Children".
Donna Roe
Results: Solved. On the night of the broadcast, Donna's half-sister was watching and recognized a picture of her and Steven at her fourth birthday party as one she had seen in Barbara's home years before. She immediately called her and then the telecenter. Two days later, she was put in contact with David, and they talked on the phone for over an hour. Her name is now Donna Rae Roe; she is married, lives in San Jose, California, and owns "The Travel Shoppe" in Los Gatos.
Donna told David that Barbara and Charles had married and assumed a new last name. She said she grew up in northern California and had a relatively normal childhood. However, several things made her feel that something was not quite right. Barbara had kept a photo of Steven and Donna in their home. As a child, Donna asked Barbara who the boy in it was. Barbara said he was a neighbor. Donna had memories of a man and boy in a place "far away". Barbara told her it was a dream. However, she also had a clear memory of them leaving the rooming house with a suitcase, meeting a man at the corner, and getting in his car.
When Donna was seventeen, she found her baptismal certificate hidden among Barbara's belongings. Her birth name was listed on it, but it was not the one she was using. However, it would be ten years before she would have the courage to ask Barbara about it. When confronted, Barbara confessed that Charles was not Donna's biological father and that she had abducted her. Although she thought about him often, she decided not to search for David because she thought she had to protect Barbara and Charles.
During their phone conversation, David told Donna to tell Barbara that he did not hold a grudge against her. A few days later, Donna also spoke to Steven. He said that he did not blame Barbara and hoped she would want to see him again. On April 19, 1996, David and Donna were joyfully reunited at his home in Hawaii. To respect Barbara and Charles' privacy, Donna did not allow the reunion to be filmed.
Sadly, in 2005, David passed away at the age of eighty-three, and on December 1, 2020, Donna passed away at the age of seventy-two.
Links:
- Donna Kempton on Unsolved Archive
- A missing girl's photo grows up (Page 1)
(Page 2) - August 9, 1995 - Hope in 42-year search for daughter - August 9, 1995
- HGEA, state team up to find lost children (Page 1)
(Page 2) - December 12, 1995 - After 42 years, against all odds, father finds his abducted daughter (Page 1)
(Page 2) - January 21, 1996 - After 42 years, a father reunites with his daughter - January 22, 1996
- David Kempton's Saga, Part 1 - January 2, 2017
- David Kempton's Saga, Part 2 - January 5, 2017
- Donna Kempton's Obituary (1) (2)