A Father's Hope
Posted: 02/27/2006
By ROBERT MILLS, Sun Staff
A 17-year-old girl is last seen getting ready to hitchhike a ride from Lawrence to Lowell. She leaves a paycheck and her clothes behind, and is never seen again.
Police treat her case as that of a runaway.
As he sits in his home in Hudson, N.H., 75-year-old Roland Labbe tells this story about his daughter, Rhonda, who has been missing for more than 31 years.
Fathers don't give up on daughters, though.
Roland Labbe is still hoping to find out what happened to Rhonda before his years finally catch up to him. Much of the help he is getting comes from unlikely sources -- a police department that never had to get involved and a constable who just wants to help.
"It's always on my mind. It's just never ... it's never gone," Labbe said. "You live, and learn to live with it, but it's always there. Where is she and what happened to her?"
Rhonda's sister, Linda Noble, of Epping, N.H., said her sister was into music and her boyfriend, though the two had their troubles.
"She smiled a lot and always put on a good face even if she was going through difficult times," Noble said.
Roland Labbe said his daughter was shy and did not always do that well in school, but nonetheless stayed out of trouble. He said she was beautiful, "a real knockout."
Rhonda was about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with brown hair, green eyes and a fair complexion.
She was last seen on Andover Street in Lawrence, where she walked with Noble, then 11, after visiting with Noble and her mother, Louise, on Aug. 7, 1974.
Noble says the day was not unusual, at least not that she can remember.
After the visit, Noble and Rhonda walked to Andover Street, near Interstate 495 in Lawrence, where Rhonda thought she could hitchhike a ride back home to Lowell.
"It was normal in the '70s to hitchhike," Noble said. "No one thought anything of it."
Noble parted ways with Rhonda near Bob's Grocery Store because Rhonda thought she would have an easier time getting a ride without her little sister there.
Rhonda was never seen again.
Roland Labbe said police never even notified him until two days later.
They also treated Rhonda's disappearance as that of a runaway, even though she left a full paycheck behind at Paris Shoe in Lowell, where she worked, as well as all of her clothes.
Police investigated for about a year, but little information ever came up.
Lawrence Police Chief John Romero did not return a message seeking information on the case. The Essex County District Attorney's Office could not immediately comment since its lead investigator is on vacation.
Roland Labbe got the four Boston television stations at the time to run stories about the disappearance, but that didn't help either.
Roland Labbe says the only significant help he ever got in the case came from a source that did not even need to be involved -- Billerica police.
Roland and the family lived in Billerica for years, and he and Rhonda's mother, Louise, who has since passed away, worked for years at the Concord Shores restaurant, Roland working as a bartender and Louise as a hostess.
The couple got to know a lot of people in Billerica, so when Rhonda went missing, Billerica police Lt. Hank Henry, who has since died, did all he could to help out.
Since then, Billerica Detective William West has worked on the case in his free time, though he can't comment for news reports since it's technically not his case.
West asked Billerica Constable William Pfaff to work on the case.
Pfaff has worked the case hard, getting Rhonda added to missing-persons lists at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as several other missing-persons Web sites.
Pfaff does not want to make an issue of the way the case was handled years ago -- that's in the past and it's just not constructive to dwell on it, he said -- but he does want answers.
Pfaff said he was moved when he met Roland Labbe.
"I made him a promise that I would never forget his daughter and would do everything in my power to help his family," Pfaff said. "I could feel his pain."
Noble, Rhonda Labbe's younger sister, said Rhonda's disappearance devastated her mother, who died years ago.
"She would cry at night and scream at God because she was so angry He took her daughter away," Noble said. "It was just horrendous for the first 10 years or so, but then the anger leaves you, and you just sort of accept the circumstances."
Noble said she eventually made her peace with the situation and no longer holds out hope that Rhonda is alive.
Her father does, though. He has never given up hope.
"I remember once when she was a little kid, she ran away and I found her, and she said that 'if I ever run away again, no one will ever find me,'" Labbe said. "That's the only reason why I have hope. She used those words once."
Anyone with information on Labbe's disappearance should call Billerica Constable William Pfaff at (978) 670-6000.
http://www.lowellsun.com/front/ci_3552145