On the evening of May 23, 1994, four-year-old Kaye Poulton asked her mother if she could go outside to ride her tricycle. It was a warm, sunny evening in their quiet suburban Rochester, New York, neighborhood, and other children were playing in the yard. Judy Poulton agreed, telling her daughter to stay close.
Minutes later, Judy stepped outside to call Kaye in. The yard was empty. The tricycle was gone.
There was no sound of its creaky wheels. Judy searched the complex, then called 911.
Police arrived quickly, joined by firefighters and canine units. They searched the 300-unit apartment complex door to door. Residents cooperated, and the manager used spare keys to open vacant units.
Nothing. By 4 a. m.
, the case was reclassified as a kidnapping.
Judy told detectives about a neighbor who had unsettled her. Mark Christie, a 22-year-old who had recently moved in with his wife and young son, had once told Judy that her daughter was beautiful. He added that he had been watching all the little girls in the complex and that Kaye was the prettiest.
He had also asked Judy whether Kaye would tell her if someone tried to touch her.
When Judy went outside looking for Kaye that evening, she saw Mark in the yard with his son. He said he hadn't seen the girl. Judy also noticed his sneakers were missing their shoelaces, but she dismissed it at the time.
Detectives brought Mark in for questioning. He denied involvement and passed a polygraph. Judy's own observation placed him in the yard at the time of the disappearance.
His apartment was searched, and nothing was found. He was released and dropped from the investigation.
With no other leads, police turned their attention to Judy. She understood the standard procedure but found it agonizing. Still, she devoted herself to finding her daughter.
She left her job, printed and distributed flyers, contacted media outlets, and appeared on national television. A reward fund of $100,000 was raised. Airlines included flyers in ticket envelopes.
Local businesses displayed them. The case received thousands of tips, all leading nowhere.
Two years passed.
On August 9, 1996, a woman called police. She was Mark Christie's wife. She told them she had argued with her husband and wanted a divorce.
During the argument, Mark confessed that he had killed Kaye Poulton.
There was a problem. Under state law, communications between spouses were protected. The confession could not be used in court.
Police could not arrest Mark based on it.
Detective Crow, who had worked the original case, decided to talk to Mark anyway. He learned that Mark had moved out of the complex weeks after Kaye's disappearance, following complaints from parents of two girls who said Mark had stood naked in his doorway. No charges had been filed, but it was suspicious.
Crow drove to Mark's new home, 50 miles away. Mark's mother answered and said her son would not speak without a lawyer. But Mark came out, and Crow convinced him to talk over coffee at a nearby restaurant.
He kept the conversation casual, careful not to pressure him.
It worked. Mark began to speak. He said Kaye's face had haunted him for two years, appearing in the news and on flyers everywhere.
Crow played on Mark's ego, telling him he had fooled the entire investigation team. Mark agreed to explain how he had gotten rid of the bicycle.
Mark said Kaye's tricycle had been in his apartment for three days. Police searched for a missing child, not for evidence, so they only looked in places where a child could fit. Mark cut the bike into pieces and hid them in closets and small bags.
He took the bags out to his car and disposed of them gradually. Officers at the complex exit were looking for a missing girl, not small bags, so no one stopped him.
Crow sensed he was close to a full confession. He told Mark that Kaye's death might have been a tragic accident. Mark asked what sentence he could face.
Crow said around 25 years. Mark said that would be unfair, that he had already lived in his own personal hell for two years.
Crow told Mark that if he didn't confess, Kaye's parents would never know what happened to her. Mark replied that she didn't suffer. Crow said it was time to do the right thing.
Mark finally admitted he had strangled her.
He claimed that Kaye had come to his apartment to play with his son. He said he let her in and took her bike to the kitchen. About ten minutes later, he heard Judy calling her daughter's name.
He panicked, went upstairs, and strangled Kaye with his bare hands.
Detective Crow had doubts. It seemed more likely that Mark had lured Kaye in, possibly to molest her, and killed her when he heard Judy calling. The missing shoelaces suggested he had used them as a weapon, meaning the crime was planned, not spontaneous.
But Crow didn't challenge the story. He needed to know where the body was.
Mark said he placed Kaye's body in a laundry basket and covered it with clothes. He took his son and went outside to be seen in the yard, creating an alibi. Then he put the basket in his car and drove to his workplace, a large building where he worked as a security guard.
He parked near the back, left the basket by the door, and entered through the main entrance. He told coworkers he had forgotten something. Inside, he opened the back door, retrieved the basket, and climbed onto a 30,000-gallon tank filled with liquid coolant.
He opened the lid, tied a heavy metal object to Kaye's body, and dropped her in. He disposed of her clothes but left her earrings on.
Then he returned home and joined the search for Kaye with the other neighbors.
Mark went willingly to the station and was arrested. His lawyer tried to withdraw the confession, but it was voluntary and legally obtained. Police opened the tank at Mark's workplace.
Two years later, Kaye's body was still inside. Decomposition prevented determination of the exact cause of death, but her identity was confirmed. Judy finally buried her daughter.
Mark pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison. His lawyer negotiated to have the kidnapping charge dropped.
But the story did not end there.
In 2010, police reopened a 1988 murder case. Viola Manville, a 74-year-old woman, had been brutally killed while walking in a Rochester suburb. Mark Christie, then 16, had been a suspect but passed a polygraph.
Another man, Frank Sterling, was arrested and confessed after an overnight interrogation. He spent 19 years in prison, maintaining his innocence.
When the case was reopened, DNA evidence from the crime scene did not match Sterling. It matched Mark Christie, whose DNA was in the FBI database. In 2011, at age 39, Mark confessed to Viola's murder and received an additional 28 years in prison.
He showed no remorse and gave no motive.
Frank Sterling was released after 19 years of wrongful imprisonment. He sued the authorities and received nearly $10 million in 2014. Three years later, he died of a heart attack at age 54.
Mark Christie remains in prison. He may become eligible for parole in the coming years, though there are no guarantees of release. If investigators in the Manville case had not fixated on an innocent man and coerced a false confession, Mark might have been incarcerated years earlier.
He would not have had the opportunity to kill Kaye Poulton.
Instead, a young girl went out to ride her tricycle on a sunny evening and never came home. Her mother spent two years searching, hoping, and keeping her daughter's face in the public eye. The truth, when it came, was far worse than anyone had imagined.