Ada Haradine was a quiet woman who lived a quiet life in a quiet neighborhood with her family. It was the neighborhood that lulls you into believing it's immune to evil. Yes, a mother six months before and 50 miles away in Argus, Indiana, had been attacked in her home in front of her girls and taken away by a crazed killer still on the loose at the time. But if that news even reached Ada in Elkart, Indiana, it surely felt a long way off as she worked outside in the yard one warm May day in 1985. A next door neighbor waved to Ada. Another passed her on his afternoon walk at 3:10.

She opened the mailbox and there was a ski magazine that had come. As I'm pulling out, backing out of the driveway, she holds up the ski magazine like, Summer's coming.

By 3:20, Ada was gone.

Nobody's seen anything. And there were people out day. Everybody said, Oh, yeah, it was a nice day. Really warm, and we were out. I seen her in the back, and I talked to her across the fence. Just seemed so out of whack. I mean, that's not the type of neighborhood where you get abductions. It was a high dollar neighborhood. A lot of influential people live there.

Everything was as it's supposed to be. A purse was there. All of those things. Nothing to indicate that there had been any crime or there.

We hadn't been there too long when the main detective from the L. C.art Police Department came in. Immediately, his reaction was not one of concern, particularly. He said, Oh, they probably had an argument. She just went off someplace. And all four of us said, No, that's not Ada. She's not like that.

Our problem was we didn't have any idea of what had happened to her other than she wasn't there. As people were interviewed, we realized that we didn't know anything. It's hard to have a direction when you're directionless.

They basically told us A few days into it, we don't have any good suspects in this case.

I think we resolved ourselves to the fact that it happened, and I just prayed and prayed and prayed that somebody would find her body.

It took three years, but some 10 miles away in a densely wooded area, someone did eventually find Ada.

My dad said, We've got some news about your mom. I need to talk to you about it. And he said, They found your mom's remains, and it floored me.

I think part of you always thinks you're going to see her again until somebody tells you you're not.

The mystery of where Ada had been was finally solved, but finding her only compounded the questions. Questions about what happened the last day she was seen.

The noise in the house has always bothered me, and I always thought, It was somebody in there and they got caught, and then they couldn't get out. So they had to sit up there and wait, and then whatever happened, happened.

Questions about how Ada ended up where she was in the condition they found her.

If she had clothing, where's her belt buckle? Where's the eyelids on the shoes? Where's the buttons? None of that stuff shows up. So you got to assume she's probably naked at that spot.

And questions about what was really happening in Ada's life before someone took it.

I always thought we were a perfect family. And they always get, nobody's perfect. No family is perfect.

The facts are strange.

This case is full of weird stuff.

The players, even stranger.

Obviously, it's still unsolved. But again, all we can do is try I.

Well, I think it's wasted effort.

In my experience, digging in and asking questions has never been a wasted effort, and it certainly wasn't in the case of Ada Harida. Season 2 of The Deck Investigates is coming soon. Follow the show so you don't miss new episodes on Friday, October fourth. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.