Today was a day that Sheri and her daughter had suffered through for the past 25 years. That day had been a quiet day with Sheri's husband Ralph going to work and Sheri staying home with her new baby. Sheri worked at the phone company nights so that they could avoid daycare costs and their daughter could spend most of her time with her parents.

But that Ralph was late. There were no cell phones at that time and Sheri had found herself pacing back and forth worrying about where he was and what would happen to her as far as her job was concerned. When Ralph hadn't come home and she was now late Sheri picked up her daughter and went over to her neighbors to borrow the phone. Even though she was working at the phone company there was no phone in the house. Some people had thought that strange. However, it was just one more bill and Sheri and Ralph were saving to buy a house.

Sheri called Ralph's work and got Fred who was her husband's supervisor. The words that Fred said that day would haunt her to this day. Ralph had never made it to work that day. They had been surprised that no one had called. That was when Sheri pannicked. She thanked Fred and placed a call to the police.

Joe Clark was reminicing about what had happened just 25 years ago on this very day. He was a police officer in a small town and very young. He had been on the force for just uunder a year when he had gotten a call about a man who was missing. The man was young and had a small baby. There had been no reports of any cars broken down on that day and he knew Ralph. Ralph was a good man but he tended tto lack some responsabilites as many young men do.

That afternoon as officer Clark took the information he listened and wrote down everything that he could. He reported all the information and promised Sheri that he and everyone on the police force would search for him.

But the search went on and on and it was assumed that Ralph had just left his family. Many young men were overwhelmed with the responsibility of a family and left them. it was a sad fact of life

But Sheri had not believed that Ralph would not just leave her and Mary forever. She put up missing posters and went over the route that Ralph would have taken to worhk a thousand times. But, the answer had always been the same, her husband was nowhere to be found. She tried to get on with her life and moved back with her . They only lived about 7 miles away and loved the chance to be with her and Mary.

Bob Shearer was the head of the DPW n town and it had been time to clean the canal. It was somethikng that the town did twice a year and you never knew what you were going to find once you emptied all of the water. He had found bikes wagons his worst fear had been that someday they would find a body. Some of the parts of town could be a little rough and fights did happen at the bars.

The draining of the canal would take a day and Bob was very busy when he got notified that his worst fear had come to be on that day. There had been a car found in the canal this time and inside was a body. When he got to the spot the police were already there, including the state police. Joe Clark was there and shaking his head. There in the bottom of the canal had been Ralph Waldon all this time. He recognized the car and the plates were his. Now he had to go and tell Sheri

Sheri had been getting ready for work when she heard the knock on the door. She could see the police cruiser in the driveway and knew something was up. As she went to the door she saw that it was Joe Clark and he wasn't smiling. It was then that she found out that she was a widow and her daughter would never get to know her father. How How could this happen she cried out? Didn't you check the canal? he went over that bridge on his way to work. We saw nothing no breaks in the bridge and there is no safety fence. We looked but found no evidence. I am truly sorry. That was all he could say.

The next few days for Sheri had been a blur. She had to arrange the funeral identify hand his body and live with the fact that the man she loved would never be returning. How sad. The weather had been sunny and bright that day. What could have caused Ralph to land in the canal? It just didn't make sense to her.

Dr Mathew Mcgreggor had ben the coroner for the county for years and never looked forward to doing an autopsy on someone so young with a wife and young child. When he got the call he went right down to the canal and supervised the removal of the body. The water had done a lot of damage, but there were several things that were salvagable and whenever there is a case of death with no witness these pieces could prove important .

Matt put the body of a young man named Ralph Walden. At first everything looked as though he had just somehow landed in the canal. There were injuries to the body that did indicate some sort of car crash. But, not too far into the autopsy he discovered that Ralph had been dead when he had entered the water. Alls of those little pieces of paper were very important now. He picked up the phone to call the police.