Mary Louise Day Resurfaced After Over 20 Years

Nevertheless, investigators wondered if she was an impostor

Mary Louise Day in 1981. Edited by the author. By Sherrie Calgaro from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Background: Seaside, California, USA. Edited by the author. By Clotee Allochuku from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Childhoods should be full of carefree days. During this period, we make mistakes, learn about the world, and make happy memories. Not everyone has this kind of childhood, though. Some experience a long string of pain, one upon the next. Mary Louise Day’s was so dark that one of the most important people in her life, her mother, did not even mount a search when she vanished in 1981.

Skipping stones across the pond

Charles Day and Charlotte Pressler’s marriage shattered after the birth of their three daughters: Sherrie, Mary, and Kathy. Throughout the divorce, the girls lived in foster care. Charlotte then married William Houle. Kathy and Mary returned to their mother and her new husband, but the foster family adopted 6-year-old Sherrie.

A photograph of Mary Louise Day as a child. By CBS News from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

More changes would touch their lives. In 1978, William Houle moved his family to Hawaii, where he would work in an army base. He abused Mary in this new environment. In the end, authorities intervened to take her into protective custody in December 1980. The family, except…