51 years ago, two teenage sisters, Cynthia and Jackie Leslie of Mesa, Arizona
vanished after going to a party. The case has remained cold.
"In the summer of 1974, 15 year old Cynthia Leslie and 13 year old Jackie Leslie, along with their younger sister, and parents Erma and Jack moved from Page, Arizona to the Desert Sands Mobile Home Park in what is now Mesa, Arizona. This mobile home park is located at Baseline and Sossamon Roads.
The Leslies moved to be closer to a hospital for Albert "Jack" Leslie's cancer treatment.
On July 31st, Jackie and Cynthia left their parents a note that they would be babysitting and would be back soon. But they never returned. Witnesses recall seeing Jackie and Cynthia walking west down Baseline to the house which was somewhere near Power Road.
Detectives discovered that the letter was a ruse, and the girls planned to attend a party instead. At this party was a boy that Jack had forbade Cynthia to see for an unknown reason.
Cindy
There were allegedly multiple teens at this party and some did say they saw the sister there, but allegedly did not disclose any relevant information to investigators.
The hosts of the She Goes By Jane podcast obtained police reports from the MCSO. They revealed that a woman named Janet Ransom brought a pair of girls underwear to the Leslie sisters mother, Erma, claiming it was probably from one of her daughters.
Janet told Erma that her husband Stacey Ransom Sr, and their nephew James, found it on the side of the road at Power and Baseline.
Sometime after the Leslie sisters disappeared, Erma Leslie saw the Ransom's daughter (whos name was redacted from this report) wearing the same type of necklace that she had gifted Cynthia. The daughter denied it was Cynthia's.
MCSO detectives interviewed the Ransom's and they allegedly refused to cooperate without a "court order."
It is unknown if any DNA testing was ever done on the underwear, but it was confirmed to contain semen stains.
According to Erma Leslie, the sisters would have never abandoned their father, especially during his cancer treatment. They also left all their possessions behind.
Jack Leslie died months later, never knowing what happened to his two beloved daughters. Erma did go on to remarry, but during the past 51 years she has continued to search for her daughters. Erma lived at the trailer park until 1999. She now lives in Nevada with her surviving daughter.
The world was a different place in 1974. DNA was non existent. There were no Amber Alerts or social media to spread the word. No cell phones and social media accounts that police could run search warrants on.
In 2025, the intersection of Power and Baseline is now part of the city of Mesa. It's a major intersection with heavy traffic just a mile south of the Superstition Mall.
But back in 1974, it was a very remote unincorporated community, not yet annexed by the City of Mesa. In Maricopa County, all unincorporated communities are under the jurisdiction of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office or MCSO.
Jackie
In 1974 there were dirt fields and orange groves for miles. Over the years of the area being built up, saw farm fields turned into shopping centers, houses and apartments.
But no construction crews have seemingly ever dug up the bodies of the Leslie sisters.
In 1974, on the corners of Power and Baseline were the former Townsend farms orange groves. MCSO allegedly conducted arial searches for bodies and found nothing.
A worker at Townsend farms claimed to have seen two teenage girls picked up in a blue Pinto and head north on Power.
Power and Baseline area is also not far from Apache Junction and the Superstition wilderness to the east. The Maricopa and Pinal County borders are Meridian Road to the east and Hunt Highway to the south.
If the sisters were murdered, could their bodies have been dumped in Pinal County or even Gila County? Or perhaps could they be buried in one of the dwindling vacant fields in the Mesa-Gilbert area?
A search online confirms both Stacy Brice Ransom Sr and his wife Janet both would be in their 80's today. It is unknown if the Ransom's lived in the same trailer park or a different residence in the area.
Could DNA testing on the semen from that underwear identify a suspect? Would witnesses unwilling to talk in 1974, be willing to come clean today?
It is unknown if the MCSO currently has a detective assigned to this case."
More reading and details here.
Sources
she goes by Jane
Mesa Sisters Disappeared 35 Years Ago; Mother and Missing Kids Group Still Hope for Answers
Missing Person / NamUs #MP6293
